engleski

Campylobacter jejuni poultry meat isolate - in vivo virulence study

Campylobacter jejuni causes food-borne illnesses worldwide due to contaminated food, mainly poultry. This is partly the consequence of microbial adaptation to environmental stresses, which has resulted in increased survival and modulation of virulence properties. In addition, stress has an impact on increased/ reduced sensitivity of the host cells. C. jejuni has evolved several survival strategies which also contribute to its persistence/ spreading in the environment. In the present study we analysed in vivo modulation of C. jejuni virulence in response to environmental stress (starvation, oxygen, temperature) on survival and infectivity in BALB/c mice. The majority of the stress conditions more or less significantly influenced the survival of C. jejuni. We investigated the bacterial numbers at different times in the liver and spleen of the infected mice and the levels of several cytokines in plasma and liver homogenates from these mice. Colonization of untreated and stressed campylobacters can occur in the liver and spleen of BALB/c mice. There were noticed different patterns of production dynamics of the cytokines investigated, although not all were significant. As we show here, in vivo studies of environmental regulation of bacterial virulence are needed to provide important observations regarding the strategies used by pathogens to respond and survive under changing environmental conditions. Adaptive stress responses during stress challenge are crucial for survival of microbial cells during host-pathogen interactions and thus for their pathogenicity.

Campylobacter jejuni; poultry; virulence; mice

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