Adherence of Enterobacteriaceae to human buccal cells.

A preliminary examination has been made of the adherencae isolated from sputa. The radioadherence method was found to correlate well with the conventional light-microscope adherence technique. Saturation of buccal-cell binding sites with bacteria occurred when less than 10% of the buccal-cell surface was occupied. The adherence of Enterobacter aerogenes to buccal cells was impaired by the prior adherence of bacilli of either the same strain, or of a strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae.