Encyclopedia of Experiments: Immunology
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Transcript
Begin with an anesthetized female mouse in a supine position and empty its bladder.
Take a pre-assembled syringe with an attached catheter containing a suspension of uropathogenic Escherichia coli bacteria.
Insert the catheter through the urethral orifice into the bladder and slowly deliver the bacterial suspension.
Post-injection, recover the mouse in a supine position.
The fimbriae of bacteria bind to specific receptors on bladder epithelial cells, triggering their internalization within the underlying epithelial cells.
Inside bladder epithelial cells, bacteria multiply, with some adopting a filamentous morphology, and form dense intracellular bacterial communities or IBCs.
These IBCs exhibit biofilm-like properties, protecting the bacteria from the mouse's immune defense system and contributing to persistent infection.
Over time, IBCs rupture, releasing bacteria into the bladder lumen; the bacteria possessing the filamentous morphology adhere to neighboring epithelial cells.
This leads to the spreading of infection, establishing a urinary tract infection in the female mouse.
