Role of hemolysin BL in the pathogenesis of extraintestinal Bacillus cereus infection assessed in an endophthalmitis model.

ABSTRACT: Bacillus cereus is a rare cause of serious human infection but, paradoxically, causes one of the most severe posttraumatic or endogenous infections of the eye, endophthalmitis, which frequently results in blindness. The virulence of B. cereus endophthalmitis historically has been attributed to toxin production. We therefore sought to examine the contribution of the dermonecrotic toxin, hemolysin BL, to the pathogenesis of B. cereus infection in an endophthalmitis system that is highly amenable to study. The pathogenesis of infection resulting from intravitreal injection of 10(2) CFU of either a clinical ocular isolate of B. cereus producing hemolysin BL (HBL+) or an isogenic mutant in this trait (HBL-) was assessed bacteriologically and by slit lamp biomicroscopy, electroretinography, hist

SUBMITTER: Callegan MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC116518 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature