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BACTERIAL PATHOGENICITY |





*Laboratory of Experimental Internal Medicine,
Department of Intensive Care Medicine,
Department of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and AIDS and
Department of Pathology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Corresponding author: Dr M.J. Schultz (e-mail: m.j.schultz{at}uva.amc.nl).
Received 31 July 2000; revised version received 20 March 2001; accepted 21 March 2001.
Abstract
Exotoxin A (P-ExA) is considered to be a major virulence factor of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Neutrophils, cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) have been implicated as important components of an effective host defence against bacterial respiratory tract infection. To study the role of P-ExA in the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa pneumonia, C57Bl/6 mice were inoculated intranasally with wild-type PA103 or a mutant P. aeruginosa strain that did not produce P-ExA, PA103-29. P-ExA facilitated the outgrowth of P. aeruginosa in lungs, as reflected by an increasing number of cfu during pneumonia with strain PA103, whereas the number of cfu decreased during pulmonary infection with strain PA103-29. Influx of neutrophils was similar in broncho-alveolar lavage fluids (BALF) during pneumonia with strains PA103 and PA103-29. Lung levels of cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6) and chemokines (macrophage inflammatory protein-2, KC) were higher in mice inoculated with strain PA103, whereas BALF concentrations of NO were similar in mice treated with strains PA103 and PA103-29. These data suggest that P-ExA impairs host defence during pneumonia caused by P. aeruginosa by a mechanism that does not involve effects on neutrophil influx, cytokines, chemokines or NO formation.
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