Survival of Staphylococcus epidermidis in Fibroblasts and Osteoblasts.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus epidermidis is a leading cause of infections associated with indwelling medical devices, including prosthetic joint infection. While biofilm formation is assumed to be the main mechanism underlying the chronic infections S. epidermidis causes, we hypothesized that S. epidermidis also evades immune killing, contributing to its pathogenesis. Here, we show that prosthetic joint-associated S. epidermidis isolates can persist intracellularly within human fibroblasts and inside human and mouse osteoblasts. We also show that the intracellularly persisting bacteria reside primarily within acidic phagolysosomes and that over the course of infection, small-colony variants are selected for. Moreover, upon eukaryotic cell death, these bacteria, which can outl

SUBMITTER: Perez K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6204734 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature