1887

Journal of Medical Microbiology logo

Volume 19, Issue 3

The pathogenesis of infection in gnotobiotic piglets Free

Abstract

Summary

is an important cause of enteritis and mesenteric adenitis in many countries. However the pathogenesis of the disease caused by this organism has not been fully elucidated. Most isolates from clinical material possess two independent properties associated with virulence whose relative contribution to the development of disease is not known. These are the ability to penetrate the intestinal wall, which is thought to be controlled by a plasmid gene, and the production of heat-stable enterotoxin, which is controlled by a chromosomal gene. In this study, we infected neonatal gnotobiotic piglets with strains of expressing these two properties in various combinations. The suitability of the piglet model was shown in experiments in which piglets fed virulent serogroup O3 developed a clinical illness related to the size of the inoculum, which was accompanied by intestinal lesions similar to those reported in naturally and experimentally infected people and animals. The results confirmed the key role of a 47 × 10-mol. wt plasmid in the pathogenicity of , but suggested that penetration of the intestinal wall may be governed by chromosomal rather than plasmid-borne genes. No role for enterotoxin in the pathogenesis of yersiniosis was shown, although there was evidence that enterotoxin may promote intra-intestinal proliferation of , thus favouring increased shedding of bacteria and encouraging their spread between hosts.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
© 1985 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-19-3-297
1985-06-01
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/19/3/medmicro-19-3-297.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-19-3-297&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Bradford W D, Noce P S, Gutman L T. 1974; Pathologic features of enteric infection with Yersinia enterocolitica. Archives of Pathology 98:17–22
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Carter P B. 1975a; Pathogenicity of Yersinia enterocolitica for mice. Infection and Immunity 11:164–170
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Carter P B. 1975b; Animal model: Oral Yersinia enterocolitica infection of mice. American Journal of Pathology 81:703–706
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Evans D G, Evans D J, Gorbach S L. 1973; Identification of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and serum antitoxin activity by the vascular permeability factor assay. Infection and Immunity 8:731–735
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Hughes D. 1979; Isolation of Yersinia enterocolitica from milk and a dairy farm in Australia. Journal of Applied Bacteriology 46:125–130
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Kelley R O, Dekker R A F, Bluemink J G. 1973; Ligand-mediated osmium binding: its application in coating biological specimens for scanning electron microscopy. Journal of Ultrastructure Research 45:254–258
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Makin T J, Tzipori S. 1980; Inexpensive techniques for the production and maintenance of gnotobiotic piglets, calves and lambs. Australian Veterinary Journal 56:353–358
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Martinez R J. 1983; Plasmid-mediated and temperature-regulated surface properties of Yersinia enterocolitica. Infection and Immunity 41:921–930
     [Google Scholar]
  9. McSporran K D, Hansen L M, Saunders B W, Damsteegt A. 1984; An outbreak of diarrhoea in hoggets associated with infection by Yersinia enterocolitica. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 32:38–39
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Okamoto K, Miyama A, Takeda T, Takeda Y, Miwatani T. 1983a; Cross-neutralization of heat-stable enterotoxin activity of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and of Yersinia enterocolitica. FEMS Microbiology Letters 16:85–87
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Okamoto K, Inoue T, Moriyama T, Shimizu K, Miyama A. 1983b; Virulence and cytotoxicity of Yersinia enterocolitica. Japanese Journal of Medical Science and Biology 36:131–132
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Pai C H, Mors V, Seemayer T A. 1980; Experimental Yersinia enterocolitica enteritis in rabbits. Infection and Immunity 28:238–244
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Pai C H, Mors V, Toma S. 1978; Prevalence of enterotoxigenicity in human and nonhuman isolates of Yersinia enterocolitica. Infection and Immunity 22:334–338
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Plotkin G R, Kluge R M, Waldman R H. 1979; Gastroenteritis: etiology, pathophysiology and clinical manifestations. Medicine; Baltimore: 5895–114
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Portnoy D A, Moseley S L, Falkow S. 1981; Characterization of plasmids and plasmid-associated determinants of Yersinia enterocolitica pathogenesis. Infection and Immunity 31:775–782
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Prpic J K, Robins-Browne R M, Davey R B. 1983; Differentiation between virulent and avirulent Yersinia enterocolitica isolates by using Congo red agar. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 18:486–490
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Robins-Browne R M, Still C S, Miliotis M D, Koornhof H J. 1979; Mechanism of action of Yersinia enterocolitica enterotoxin. Infection and Immunity 25:680–684
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Schiemann D A. 1981; An enterotoxin-negative strain of Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 0:3 is capable of producing diarrhea in mice. Infection and Immunity 32:571–574
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Schiemann D A, Devenish J A. 1982; Relationship of HeLa cell infectivity to biochemical, serological, and virulence characteristics of Yersinia enterocolitica. Infection and Immunity 35:497–506
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Sereny B. 1955; Experimental Shigella keratoconjunctivitis: a preliminary report. Acta Microbiologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 2:293–296
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Taylor C R. 1978; Immunoperoxidase techniques: practical and’theoretical aspects. Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 102:113–121
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Toma S, Deidrick V R. 1975; Isolation of Yersinia enterocolitica from swine. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 2:478–481
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Une T. 1977; Studies on the pathogenicity of Yersinia enterocolitica. I. Experimental infection in rabbits. Microbiology and Immunology 21:349–363
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Vantrappen G, Geboes K, Ponette E. 1982; Yersinia enteritis. Medical Clinics of North America 66:639–653
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Vesikari T, Nurmi T, Maki M, Skurnik M, Sundqvist C, Granfors K, Gronroos P. 1981; Plasmids in Yersinia enterocolitica serotypes 0:3 and 0:9: Correlation with epithelial cell adherence in vitro. Infection and Immunity 33:870–876
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Winblad S. 1973; Studies on the O-serotype of Yersinia enterocolitica. Winblad S. Yersinia, pasteurella and francisella Contributions to Microbiology and Immunology 2 Karger; Basel:27–37
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-19-3-297
Loading
The pathogenesis of Yersinia enterocolitica infection in gnotobiotic piglets
J. Med. Microbiol. 19, 297 (1985); https://doi.org/10.1099/00222615-19-3-297
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-19-3-297
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-19-3-297
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Most cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error