Castro Joana, Rosca Aliona S, Muzny Christina A, Cerca Nuno
Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB), Laboratory of Research in Biofilms Rosário Oliveira (LIBRO), Campus de Gualtar, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
Pathogens. 2021 Feb 20;10(2):247. doi: 10.3390/pathogens10020247.
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is associated with a highly structured polymicrobial biofilm on the vaginal epithelium where species presumably play a pivotal role. , , and are vaginal pathogens detected during the early stages of incident BV. Herein, we aimed to analyze the impact of and on a pre-established biofilm using a novel in vitro triple-species biofilm model. Total biofilm biomass was determined by the crystal violet method. We also discriminated the bacterial populations in the biofilm and in its planktonic fraction by using PNA FISH. We further analyzed the influence of and on the expression of key virulence genes of by quantitative PCR. In our tested conditions, and were able to incorporate into pre-established biofilms but did not induce an increase in total biofilm biomass, when compared with 48-h biofilms. However, they were able to significantly influence the expression of , a gene suggested to be associated with biofilm maintenance in . This study suggests that microbial relationships between co-infecting bacteria can deeply affect the biofilm, a crucial marker of BV.
细菌性阴道病（BV）与阴道上皮上高度结构化的多微生物生物膜有关，其中各菌种可能起着关键作用。阴道阿托波菌、卷曲乳酸杆菌和加德纳菌是在初发性BV早期检测到的阴道病原体。在此，我们旨在使用一种新型体外三菌种生物膜模型，分析阴道阿托波菌和加德纳菌对预先形成的卷曲乳酸杆菌生物膜的影响。通过结晶紫法测定生物膜总生物量。我们还使用肽核酸荧光原位杂交（PNA FISH）区分生物膜及其浮游部分中的细菌群体。我们通过定量PCR进一步分析了阴道阿托波菌和加德纳菌对卷曲乳酸杆菌关键毒力基因表达的影响。在我们的测试条件下，与48小时的卷曲乳酸杆菌生物膜相比，阴道阿托波菌和加德纳菌能够融入预先形成的卷曲乳酸杆菌生物膜，但不会导致生物膜总生物量增加。然而，它们能够显著影响卷曲乳酸杆菌中一个被认为与生物膜维持相关的基因的表达。这项研究表明，共感染细菌之间的微生物关系会深刻影响卷曲乳酸杆菌生物膜，这是BV的一个关键标志物。
