Local and diffuse bacterial adherence on uroepithelial cells

The concept of local and diffuse adherence has been described for enteropathogenicEscherichia coli. In the present study, similar findings are reported for bacterial adherence to uroepithelial cells from patients with acute urinary tract infection and following incubation in an in vitro adherence assay. A population of cells were seen with few or no bacteria attached; others had localized areas of adherent organisms, while some cells were heavily colonized in a diffuse manner. These patterns were noted in vitro for anEscherichia coli strain and aLactobacillus casei strain, which possess different adhesins, therefore indicating that the adherence patterns were probably due to epithelial cell differences. The light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy observations illustrate that bacterial adherence to uroepithelial cells occurs in localized and diffuse distributions. The results indicate that there are differences in uroepithelial cell receptivity for bacterial attachment. The availability of cells receptive to uropathogens and indigenous flora, such as lactobacilli, is probably one of several factors that influence the pathogenesis of urinary tract infections.