Invasive and enterotoxic properties in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains isolated from humans and animals.

Invasive properties of 15 strains of thermotolerant Campylobacter (12 C. jejuni and 3 C. coli) were studied using HeLa cells cultures. In four of them (3 C. jejuni and 1 C. coli), randomly selected, intestinal perfusion experiments were conducted in order to asses enterotoxigenicity. All strains were able to invade HeLa cells. The number of invaded HeLa cells ranged from 3 to 46%. In addition to their invasive properties, the 4 strains used in perfusion experiments were able to induce either a net secretory flux or an impaired sodium transport.