Invasive extravillous trophoblasts restrict intracellular growth and spread of Listeria monocytogenes.

ABSTRACT: Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen that can infect the placenta, a chimeric organ made of maternal and fetal cells. Extravillous trophoblasts (EVT) are specialized fetal cells that invade the uterine implantation site, where they come into direct contact with maternal cells. We have shown previously that EVT are the preferred site of initial placental infection. In this report, we infected primary human EVT with L. monocytogenes. EVT eliminated ∼80% of intracellular bacteria over 24-hours. Bacteria were unable to escape into the cytoplasm and remained confined to vacuolar compartments that became acidified and co-localized with LAMP1, consistent with bacterial degradation in lysosomes. In human placental organ cultures bacterial vacuolar escape rates d

SUBMITTER: Zeldovich VB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3048367 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature