Resistance of Vibrio vulnificus to Serum Bactericidal and Opsonizing Factors: Relation to Virulence in Suckling Mice and Humans

Vibrio vulnificus causes soft-tissue infections, gastrointestinal disease, and severe sepsis in humans. Bacterial and host factors in virulence have remained poorly defined. We found that blood culture isolates of V. vulnificus were completely resistant to the bactericidal effects of 10% normal huma...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 1984-09, Vol.150 (3), p.413-418
Main Authors: Johnson, David E., Calia, Frank M., Musher, Daniel M., Goree, Allen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Animals
Animals, Suckling
Bacteria
Bacteriology
Biological and medical sciences
Blood
Blood Bactericidal Activity
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Infections
Lethal Dose 50
Mice
Microbiology
Opsonin Proteins - immunology
Original Articles
Pathogenicity, virulence, toxins, bacteriocins, pyrogens, host-bacteria relations, miscellaneous strains
Phagocytosis
Sepsis
Sepsis - microbiology
Suckling
Vibrio
Vibrio - immunology
Vibrio - pathogenicity
Vibrio Infections - microbiology
Vibrio vulnificus
Virulence
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Vibrio vulnificus causes soft-tissue infections, gastrointestinal disease, and severe sepsis in humans. Bacterial and host factors in virulence have remained poorly defined. We found that blood culture isolates of V. vulnificus were completely resistant to the bactericidal effects of 10% normal human serum, in contrast to soft-tissue and environmental isolates that showed a mean 2.6 log10, decline during 120 min of incubation. Following opsonization by 10% normal human serum, mean uptake of blood isolates by normal human polymorphonuclear leukocytes during 20 min of incubation in vitro was 45.8% compared with 83.2% for isolates from other sites. Blood isolates were lethal for suckling mice (mean LD50, 1.3 × 106) in contrast with isolates from other sites, which were less virulent (mean LD50, 1 × 109); lethality correlated well with bacteremia at 6 hr. These studies show a close correlation between bacterial virulence for humans and suckling mice and suggest that resistance to the bactericidal and opsonizing effects of normal human serum may be important factors governing that virulence.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1093/infdis/150.3.413