Hemagglutination by Bordetella bronchiseptica

Abstract

A total of 53 isolates of Bordetella bronchiseptica from dogs and pigs were tested for their ability to agglutinate chicken, horse, sheep, dog, pig, and guinea pig erythrocytes. No differences in hemagglutinating activity were attributed to the animal origin of the bordetella isolates. Horse and dog erythrocytes consistently resulted in the strongest hemagglutination reactions, whereas only 4% of the B. bronchiseptica isolates produced weak agglutination of chicken erythrocytes. A total of 85% of the isolates agglutinated horse, sheep, dog, pig, and guinea pig erythrocytes. One canine isolate with hemagglutinating activity, strain 110H, was examined to determine the nature of the hemagglutinin(s) involved. Hemagglutination was always accompanied by hemadsorption, as determined by dark-field or phase-contrast microscopy. Treatment of cells and cell extracts with heat or protease K inhibited the hemagglutination reaction. Sonicated bacterial cells had a greater hemagglutinating ability than did unsonicated live bacteria. The hemagglutination reaction was not inhibited by any of 17 sugars nor by N - acetylglucosamine or ethylene glycol-bis-(β-aminoethyl ether)- N , N -tetraacetic acid. Hemagglutinins were not detected in sonic extracts nor in several bacterial subunit fractions, including isolated pili. Antigens in some of these preparations were, however, detectable by indirect hemagglutination with anti- B. bronchiseptica serum. Isolated pili could not be detected on the erythrocyte surface by electron microscopy; however, serial sections of erythrocytes agglutinated by the live Bordetella organisms showed that the bacterial outer membrane and the erythrocyte surface were separated by a space of approximately 20 nm. This study provided additional circumstantial evidence that B. bronchiseptica pili or at least heat-labile surface proteins which extend some distance from the bacterial surface are involved in hemagglutination. Multiple hemagglutinins are likely to exist within this species since one isolate lacking pili also agglutinated canine erthyrocytes. The hemagglutinins of B. bronchiseptica need to be isolated and characterized before the hemagglutination reaction can be applied to studies of attachment.

Adherence of Bordetella bronchiseptica and Pasteurella multocida to swine nasal ciliated epithelial cells in vitro

“…In contrast, B. bronchisepticu rough phase strains CV03, CVO 13, and CV05 lost both abilities. Similar results have been demonstrated by other researchers (3,27). This phenomenon has led them to conclude that hemagglutinin might be one of the adhesins responsible for the adherence between bacteria and swine nasal ciliated epithelial cells.…”

“…Bordetella bronchiseptica phase I strains show positive hemagglutination and adhere well to ciliated epithelial cells, whereas rough phase strains lack both abilities. Thus, hemagglutinin has been suggested as one of the adhesins of B. bronchiseptica responsible for attachment to ciliated epithelial cells (3,27). All the phenomena mentioned above still need further investigation.…”

Phase variants of Bordetella bronchiseptica arise by spontaneous deletions in the vir locus

“…5. bronchiseptica and B. pertussis are also similar at the molecular level, as demonstrated by multi-locus enzyme electrophoresis analysis (Goodnow, 1980), deoxyribonucleotide sequence relationships (Kloos ef al., 1981), serotype analysis (Eldering etal., 1957;Pedersen, 1975), metabolic properties (Johnson and Sneath, 1973), and electrophoresis of cell envelope proteins (Ezzel ef al., 1981). In addition, both species produce common virulence-associated determinants including filamentous haemagglutinin (FHA) (Bemis and Plotkin, 1982;Blom ef al., 1983), adenylate cyclase (Endoh etal., 1980), pili (Lee ef al., 1986;Mooi ef al., 1987), 68kD or 69kD outer membrane protein (Montaraz etal., 1985), dermonecrotic toxin (Nakai etal., 1985;Cowell etal., 1979;Kume etal.. 1986), and haemolysin (Pedersen, 1976;Peppier, 1982). Both Bordetella species coordinately regulate the production of these virulent-phase genes during antigenic modulation and phase variation (Lax, 1985;Weiss and Falkow, 1984).…”

The differing effect of proteases on the adhesins of Aeromonas hydrophila

“…Several studies have indicated that the attachment of bacteria to host receptor cells is a necessary prerequisite to the elaboration of the disease process (for review see [9]). The ability of bacteria to agglutinate erythrocytes has been widely used as a model for detecting the adhesive ability of a variety of species [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] including A. hydrophila [17]. Adhesion of the bacteria to the host cells is believed to be mediated by lectin-like bacterial surface proteins (termed adhesins) directed against carbohydrate moieties on the surface of the receptor cells [ 18].…”