Platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1, a putative receptor for the adhesion of Streptococcus pneumoniae to the vascular endothelium of the blood-brain barrier.

ABSTRACT: The Gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is the main causative agent of bacterial meningitis. S. pneumoniae is thought to invade the central nervous system via the bloodstream by crossing the vascular endothelium of the blood-brain barrier. The exact mechanism by which pneumococci cross endothelial cell barriers before meningitis develops is unknown. Here, we investigated the role of PECAM-1/CD31, one of the major endothelial cell adhesion molecules, in S. pneumoniae adhesion to vascular endothelium of the blood-brain barrier. Mice were intravenously infected with pneumococci and sacrificed at various time points to represent stages preceding meningitis. Immunofluorescent analysis of brain tissue of infected mice showed that pneumococci colocalized with PECAM-1. In human brain

SUBMITTER: Iovino F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4187830 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature