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Infection and Immunity, May 2009, p. 1959-1967, Vol. 77, No. 5
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.01239-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Campylobacter jejuni Cocultured with Epithelial Cells Reduces Surface Capsular Polysaccharide Expression{triangledown}

N. Corcionivoschi,1 M. Clyne,1 A. Lyons,1 A. Elmi,2 O. Gundogdu,2 B. W. Wren,2 N. Dorrell,2 A. V. Karlyshev,2 and B. Bourke1*

School of Medicine and Medical Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, The Children's Research Centre, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12, and Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland,1 Department of Infectious & Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom2

Received 10 October 2008/ Returned for modification 24 November 2008/ Accepted 3 March 2009

The host cell environment can alter bacterial pathogenicity. We employed a combination of cellular and molecular techniques to study the expression of Campylobacter jejuni polysaccharides cocultured with HCT-8 epithelial cells. After two passages, the amount of membrane-bound high-molecular-weight polysaccharide was considerably reduced. Microarray profiling confirmed significant downregulation of capsular polysaccharide (CPS) locus genes. Experiments using conditioned media showed that sugar depletion occurred only when the bacterial and epithelial cells were cocultured. CPS depletion occurred when C. jejuni organisms were exposed to conditioned media from a different C. jejuni strain but not when exposed to conditioned media from other bacterial species. Proteinase K or heat treatment of conditioned media under coculture conditions abrogated the effect on the sugars, as did formaldehyde fixation and cycloheximide treatment of host cells or chloramphenicol treatment of the bacteria. However, sugar depletion was not affected in flagellar export (fliQ) and quorum-sensing (luxS) gene mutants. Passaged C. jejuni showed reduced invasiveness and increased serum sensitivity in vitro. C. jejuni alters its surface polysaccharides when cocultured with epithelial cells, suggesting the existence of a cross talk mechanism that modulates CPS expression during infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: The Children's Research Centre, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin 12, Ireland. Phone: 353 1 4096467. Fax: 353 1 4555307. E-mail: billy.bourke{at}ucd.ie

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 9 March 2009.

Editor: B. A. McCormick

Infection and Immunity, May 2009, p. 1959-1967, Vol. 77, No. 5
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.01239-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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