Thwaite J E, Laws T R, Atkins T P, Atkins H S
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Lett Appl Microbiol. 2009 Mar;48(3):373-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-765X.2008.02543.x. Epub 2009 Feb 2.
The genus Bacillus encompasses a wide range of species which display varying pathogenic abilities. The hydrophobicity of a range of Bacillus species was determined to evaluate the correlation between bacterial hydrophobicity and pathogenicity.
Bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbon assays were used to determine the hydrophobicity of various Bacillus species. Significant differences in the hydrophobicity of vegetative Bacilli were found. Specifically, vegetative Bacillus anthracis or Bacillus thuringiensis cells were highly hydrophobic whereas Bacillus cereus or Bacillus subtilis were only slightly hydrophobic using this test. Cell adhesion assays using A549 or J774 cells were used to demonstrate a correlation between the bacterial hydrophobicity profiles with the ability to adhere to the mammalian cell lines.
The ability of Bacillus species to adhere to mammalian cell lines correlates with the hydrophobicity of the bacteria and also correlates with the relative pathogenicity of some of the Bacillus species tested.
This work suggests that study of the physical-chemical properties of vegetative cells could inform future approaches for the rapid identification and discrimination of potentially pathogenic Bacilli.
芽孢杆菌属包含多种具有不同致病能力的物种。测定了一系列芽孢杆菌物种的疏水性，以评估细菌疏水性与致病性之间的相关性。
采用细菌对碳氢化合物的粘附试验来测定各种芽孢杆菌物种的疏水性。发现营养期芽孢杆菌的疏水性存在显著差异。具体而言，在此试验中，营养期炭疽芽孢杆菌或苏云金芽孢杆菌细胞具有高度疏水性，而蜡样芽孢杆菌或枯草芽孢杆菌仅具有轻微疏水性。使用A549或J774细胞进行的细胞粘附试验证明了细菌疏水性谱与粘附哺乳动物细胞系能力之间的相关性。
芽孢杆菌物种粘附哺乳动物细胞系的能力与细菌的疏水性相关，也与所测试的一些芽孢杆菌物种的相对致病性相关。
这项工作表明，对营养期细胞物理化学性质的研究可为未来快速鉴定和区分潜在致病性芽孢杆菌的方法提供依据。
