Enhanced bacteremia in human factor H transgenic rats infected by Neisseria meningitidis.

ABSTRACT: Neisseria meningitidis binds the complement downregulating protein, factor H (fH), which enables the organism to evade host defenses. Two fH ligands, fHbp and NspA, are known to bind specifically to human fH. We developed a human fH transgenic infant rat model to investigate the effect of human fH on meningococcal bacteremia. At 18 h after intraperitoneal challenge with 560 CFU of group B strain H44/76, all 19 human fH-positive rats had positive blood cultures compared to 0 of 7 human fH-negative control littermates (P < 0.0001). Human fH-positive infant rats also developed bacteremia after challenge with isogenic mutants of H44/76 in which genes encoding fHbp and NspA (ΔfHbp ΔNspA mutant) or the lipooligosaccharide sialyltransferase (Δlst mutant) had been inactivated. A fully encapsulated

SUBMITTER: Vu DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3264313 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature