Ingestion of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis into human fibroblasts in vitro.

The ingestion into human fibroblasts of different strains (avirulent and virulent) of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was investigated. The kinetics of ingestion was studied with the addition of 10(7) bacteria to human lung fibroblast cultures. The number of ingested bacteria after 0.5-3 h was measured with viable count technique. All strains were ingested except for one avirulent strain. The other strains were ingested at roughly the same rate. The bacterial uptake seemed to be mediated by a phagocytic-like procedure and the intracellular bacteria resided in vacuoles. The bacteria survived and also multiplied in the cells (for at least 7 days).