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Infection and Immunity, December 2003, p. 6707-6711, Vol. 71, No. 12
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.12.6707-6711.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Oxygen Regulates Invasiveness and Virulence of Group B Streptococcus

Atul K. Johri, Joahnna Padilla, Gennady Malin, and Lawrence C. Paoletti^*

Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Received 26 March 2003/ Returned for modification 26 June 2003/ Accepted 28 August 2003

The facultative anaerobe group B Streptococcus (GBS) is an opportunistic pathogen of pregnant women, newborns, and the elderly. Although several virulence factors have been identified, environmental factors that regulate the pathogenicity of GBS have not been well characterized. Using the dynamic in vitro attachment and invasion system (DIVAS), we examined the effect of oxygen on the ability of GBS to invade immortalized human epithelial cells. GBS type III strain M781 invaded human epithelial cells of primitive neurons, the cervix, the vagina, and the endometrium in 5- to 400-fold higher numbers when cultured at a cell mass doubling time (t_d) of 1.8 h than at a slower t_d of 11 h. Invasion was optimal when GBS was cultured at a t_d of 1.8 h in the presence of 5% oxygen and was significantly reduced without oxygen. Moreover, GBS grown in a chemostat under highly invasive conditions (t_d of 1.8 h, with oxygen) was more virulent in neonatal mice than was GBS grown under suboptimal invasion conditions (t_d of 1.8 h, without oxygen), suggesting a positive association between in vitro invasiveness with DIVAS and virulence.

Editor: V. J. DiRita

Present address: BioProcessors Corp., Woburn, MA 01801.

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