Identification of a novel virulence factor in Clostridium difficile that modulates toxin sensitivity of cultured epithelial cells.

ABSTRACT: Two glucosylating toxins named toxins A and B play a role in the pathogenesis of Clostridium Difficile infection. The interaction of the toxins with host cell factors proceeds to downstream stages of cytotoxic effects in cells, in which involvement of other C. difficile factors remains unknown. We utilized culture filtrate of C. difficile with a low dilution to characterize the influence of putative minor proteins on the organization of the actin cytoskeleton in cultured epithelial cells and found a previously uncharacterized F-actin aggregated structure, termed "actin aggregate," at the juxtanuclear region. We reasoned that formation of actin aggregate was due to an additional factor(s) in the culture filtrate rather than the glucosylating toxins, because treatment of purified toxins rare

SUBMITTER: Miura M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3165483 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature