Whooping Cough Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Whooping Cough, including details on symptoms, treatment, vaccines, causes, outbreaks.

Ultrastructural analysis of the interactions between Bordetella pertussis, Bordetella parapertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica and human tracheal epithelial cells.

Gueirard P, Bassinet L, Bonne I, Prevost MC, Guiso N

Unité Prévention et Thérapie Moléculaires des Maladies Humaines, Institut Pasteur, 25, rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France.

Bordetella pertussis, Bordetella parapertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica are respiratory pathogens that colonize the respiratory tract of their host after adhesion to the respiratory epithelium. Presently, the intracellular fate of these bacteria in human tracheal epithelial cells was compared by use of transmission electron microscopy. The three species, even when cytotoxic, were taken-up by epithelial cells. Although, some intracellular bacteria appeared morphologically intact and survived a few days inside epithelial cells, most of them appeared quickly degraded, phenomenon which was associated with an intense cell metabolic activity. Even cytotoxic Bordetella species is ultimately killed by human epithelial cells.

Published 17 January 2005 in Microb Pathog, 38(1): 41-6.
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