scholarly journals Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factor Type 1 of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Kills Cultured Human Uroepithelial 5637 Cells by an Apoptotic Mechanism

2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 5869-5880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melody Mills ◽  
Karen C. Meysick ◽  
Alison D. O'Brien

ABSTRACT Pathogenic Escherichia coli associated with urinary tract infections (UTIs) in otherwise healthy individuals frequently produce cytotoxic necrotizing factor type 1 (CNF1), a member of the family of bacterial toxins that target the Rho family of small GTP-binding proteins. To gain insight into the function of CNF1 in the development of E. coli-mediated UTIs, we examined the effects of CNF1 intoxication on a panel of human cell lines derived from physiologically relevant sites (bladder, ureters, and kidneys). We identified one uroepithelial cell line that exhibited a distinctly different CNF1 intoxication phenotype from the prototypic one of multinucleation without cell death that is seen when HEp-2 or other epithelial cells are treated with CNF1. The 5637 bladder cell line detached from the growth surface within 72 h of CNF1 intoxication, a finding that suggested frank cytotoxicity. To determine the basis for the unexpected toxic effect of CNF1 on 5637 cells, we compared the degree of toxin binding, actin fiber formation, and Rho modification with those CNF1-induced events in HEp-2 cells. We found no apparent difference in the amount of CNF1 bound to 5637 cells and HEp-2 cells. Moreover, CNF1 modified Rho, in vivo and in vitro, in both cell types. In contrast, one of the classic responses to CNF1 in HEp-2 and other epithelial cell lines, the formation of actin stress fibers, was markedly absent in 5637 cells. Indeed, actin stress fiber induction by CNF1 did not occur in any of the other human bladder cell lines that we tested (J82, SV-HUC-1, or T24). Furthermore, the appearance of lamellipodia and filopodia in 5637 cells suggested that CNF1 activated the Cdc42 and Rac proteins. Finally, apoptosis was observed in CNF1-intoxicated 5637 cells. If our results with 5637 cells reflect the interaction of CNF1 with the transitional uroepithelium in the human bladder, then CNF1 may be involved in the exfoliative process that occurs in that organ after infection with uropathogenic E. coli.

2001 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 3954-3964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen E. Rippere-Lampe ◽  
Alison D. O'Brien ◽  
Richard Conran ◽  
Hank A. Lockman

ABSTRACT Cytotoxic necrotizing factor type 1 (CNF1) is a 115-kDa toxin that activates Rho GTPases and is produced by uropathogenicEscherichia coli (UPEC). While both epidemiological studies that link CNF1 production by E. coli with urinary tract disease and the cytopathic effects of CNF1 on cultured urinary tract cells are suggestive of a role for the toxin as a UPEC virulence factor, few in vivo studies to test this possibility have been reported. Therefore, in this investigation, we evaluated the importance of CNF1 in a murine model of urinary tract infection (UTI) by comparing the degree of colonization and damage induced by three different CNF1-producing E. coli strains with isogenic CNF1-deficient derivatives. The data from single-strain challenge experiments with C3H/HeOuJ mice indicated a trend toward higher counts of the wild-type strains in the urine and bladders of these animals up to 3 days after challenge in two of three strain pairs. Furthermore, this difference was statistically significant at day 2 of infection with one strain pair, C189 and C189cnf 1. To control for the animal-to-animal variability inherent in this model, we infected C3H/HeOuJ mice with a mixture of CNF1-positive and -negative isogenic derivatives of CP9. The CNF1-positive strain was recovered in higher numbers than the CNF1-negative strain in the urine, bladders, and kidneys of the mice up to 9 days postinfection. These striking coinfection findings, taken with the trends observed in single-strain infections, led us to conclude that CNF1-negative strains were generally attenuated compared to the wild type in the C3H/HeOuJ mouse model of UTI. Furthermore, histopathological examination of bladder specimens from mice infected with CNF1-positive strains consistently showed deeper, more extensive inflammation than in those infected with the isogenic mutants. Lastly, we found that CNF1-positive strain CP9 was better able to resist killing by fresh human neutrophils than were CP9cnf 1 bacteria. From these data in aggregate, we propose that CNF1 production increases the capacity of UPEC strains to resist killing by neutrophils, which in turn permits these bacteria to gain access to deeper tissue and persist better in the lower urinary tract.


1998 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. ADLERBERTH ◽  
C. SVANBORG ◽  
B. CARLSSON ◽  
L. MELLANDER ◽  
L.-Å. HANSON ◽  
...  

Resident and transient Escherichia coli strains were identified in the rectal flora of 22 Pakistani infants followed from birth to 6 months of age. All strains were tested for O-antigen expression, adhesin specificity (P fimbriae, other mannose-resistant adhesins or type 1 fimbriae) and adherence to the colonic cell line HT-29. Resident strains displayed higher mannose- resistant adherence to HT-29 cells, and expressed P fimbriae (P=0·0036) as well as other mannose-resistant adhesins (P=0·012) more often than transient strains. In strains acquired during the first month of life, P fimbriae were 12 times more frequent in resident than in transient strains (P=0·0006). The O-antigen distribution did not differ between resident and transient strains, and none of the resident P-fimbriated strains belonged to previously recognized uropathogenic clones. The results suggest that adhesins mediating adherence to intestinal epithelial cells, especially P fimbriae, enhance the persistence of E. coli in the large intestine of infants.


2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 4570-4578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Blomgran ◽  
Limin Zheng ◽  
Olle Stendahl

ABSTRACT Type 1 fimbriae are the most commonly expressed virulence factor on uropathogenic Escherichia coli. In addition to promoting avid bacterial adherence to the uroepithelium and enabling colonization, type 1 fimbriae recruit neutrophils to the urinary tract as an early inflammatory response. Using clinical isolates of type 1 fimbriated E. coli and an isogenic type 1 fimbria-negative mutant (CN1016) lacking the FimH adhesin, we investigated if these strains could modulate apoptosis in human neutrophils. We found that E. coli expressing type 1 fimbriae interacted with neutrophils in a mannose- and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-dependent manner, leading to apoptosis which was triggered by the intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species. This induced neutrophil apoptosis was abolished by blocking FimH-mediated attachment, by inhibiting NADPH oxidase activation, or by neutralizing LPS. In contrast, CN1016, which did not adhere to or activate the respiratory burst of neutrophils, delayed the spontaneous apoptosis in an LPS-dependent manner. This delayed apoptosis could be mimicked by adding purified LPS and was also observed by using fimbriated bacteria in the presence of d-mannose. These results suggest that LPS is required for E. coli to exert both pro- and antiapoptotic effects on neutrophils and that the difference in LPS presentation (i.e., with or without fimbriae) determines the outcome. The present study showed that there is a fine-tuned balance between type 1 fimbria-induced and LPS-mediated delay of apoptosis in human neutrophils, in which altered fimbrial expression on uropathogenic E. coli determines the neutrophil survival and the subsequent inflammation during urinary tract infections.


2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 2708-2714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hank A. Lockman ◽  
Rebecca A. Gillespie ◽  
Beth D. Baker ◽  
Elizabeth Shakhnovich

ABSTRACT Cell extracts from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis induced multinucleation in HEp-2 cells in a manner similar to the effect caused by Escherichia coli cytotoxic necrotizing factor (CNF). The activity was not dependent on the Yersinia 70-kb virulence plasmid, and the activity was not inhibited by antibodies capable of neutralizing E. coli CNF type 1. The nucleotide sequence of the Yersinia cnf gene was 65.1% identical to the E. coli cnf gene.


2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 4401-4408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon M. Davis ◽  
Humberto M. Carvalho ◽  
Susan B. Rasmussen ◽  
Alison D. O'Brien

ABSTRACT Cytotoxic necrotizing factor type 1 (CNF1), a toxin produced by many strains of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), constitutively activates small GTPases of the Rho family by deamidating a single amino acid within these target proteins. Such activated GTPases not only stimulate actin polymerization within affected cells but also, as we previously reported, decrease membrane fluidity on mouse polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs). In that same investigation we found that this diminished membrane movement impedes the clustering of the complement receptor CD11b/CD18 on PMNs and, in turn, decreases PMN phagocytic capacity and microbicidal activity on PMNs in direct contact with CNF1-expressing UPEC as well as on those in proximity to wild-type UPEC. The latter observation suggested to us that CNF1 is released from neighboring bacteria, although at the time of initiation of the study described here, no specific mechanism for export of CNF1 from UPEC had been described. Here we present evidence that CNF1 is released from the CNF1-expressing UPEC strain CP9 (serotype O4/H5/K54) in a complex with outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) and that these CNF1-bearing vesicles transfer biologically active CNF1 to PMNs and attenuate phagocyte function. Furthermore, we show that CNF1-bearing vesicles act in a dose-dependent fashion on PMNs to inhibit their chemotactic response to formyl-Met-Leu-Phe, while purified CNF1 does not. We conclude that OMVs provide a means for delivery of CNF1 from a UPEC strain to PMNs and thus negatively affect the efficacy of the acute inflammatory response to these organisms.


1999 ◽  
Vol 67 (7) ◽  
pp. 3657-3661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Island ◽  
Xaioling Cui ◽  
John W. Warren

ABSTRACT We hypothesized that Escherichia coli cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (CNF1) might impair migration or proliferation of bladder cells and could potentially interfere with repair of the bladder epithelium. Using experimentally wounded human T24 bladder epithelial cell monolayers as an in vitro model, we found that both the number of T24 cells and the maximum distance they migrated into wounded regions was significantly decreased by bacterial extracts containingE. coli CNF1.


1993 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 157-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Blanco ◽  
Miguel Blanco ◽  
Idania Wong ◽  
Jesús E. Blanco

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1796-1799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen E. Mellor ◽  
Rebecca M. Goulter ◽  
T. W. Raymond Chia ◽  
Gary A. Dykes

ABSTRACT The ability of Escherichia coli and Salmonella isolates to attach to Caco-2 and HT-29 cell monolayers was measured. All isolates displayed a greater ability to attach to Caco-2 cells than HT-29 cells, and overall E. coli isolates attached better to both cell lines than Salmonella isolates. Bacteria that were considered to be pathogenic displayed no greater ability to attach to cell lines than those that were not considered to be pathogenic. Additionally, no correlation was found between cell line attachment and previously determined hydrophobicity results.


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