Importance of the Keratinized Epithelial Cell in Bacterial Adherence

Abstract

The effect of cellular pathology and keratinization of skin and nasal cells upon binding of Staphylococcus aureus were examined. Adherence with epithelial cells obtained from either the skin or nasal mucosa of patients with atopic dermatitis was greater than that observed with normal cells (p less than 0.001); the difference in adherence between psoriatic and normal cells was not statistically significant. Tested nasal cells were microscopically differentiated into 4 general types based on stage or layer of keratinization: spinous, low granular, high granular, and keratin. The degree of adherence was related to the progress of keratinization. Data indicated the existence of 2 types of receptors for S. aureus on nasal cells: One, present upon both granular and fully keratinized cells, is not blocked by teichoic acid and appears responsible for the higher bacterial counts on atopic cells; the second is found on keratinized cells only and is susceptible to teichoic acid.

The Staphylococcus aureus surface protein SasG and its homologues promote bacterial adherence to human desquamated nasal epithelial cells

“…The main region of the nasal vestibule where colonization occurs is the moist squamous epithelium which is devoid of hair, cilia and microvilli, a region immediately distal to the anterior hairy epidermis (Cole et al, 2001). In vitro studies have shown that S. aureus cells adhere to desquamated nasal epithelial cells isolated from this region of the nasal vestibule (Aly et al, 1977;Bibel et al, 1982;O'Brien et al, 2002). O'Brien et al (2002) showed that ClfB promoted staphylococcal binding to nasal epithelial cells.…”

Carriage ofStaphylococcus aureusAmong Injection Drug Users: Lower Prevalence in an Injection Heroin Maintenance Program Than in an Oral Methadone Program

“…Previous studies described S. aureus adhesion to mucin, 15 and to nasal epithelial cells. 16 It is also thought that damaged mucosa is more likely to become colonized with S. aureus because underlying surfaces contain tissue constituents, such as microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules, that promote colonization. 17 Sixty-six percent of the patients in the oral methadone program continued to use intravenous drugs despite methadone substitution.…”

Isolation and Characterization of Teichoic Acid‐Like Substance as an Adhesin of Staphylococcus aureus to HeLa Cells

“…Bibel et al (6) have reported that fibronectin seemed to be a teichoic acid receptor in a study of the adherence of S. aureus to human nasal epithelial cells. We could not detect fibronectin on HeLa cells with anti-fibronectin antibody (data not shown), suggesting that fibronectin plays little, if any, role in the binding of teichoic acid to HeLa cells.…”

“…Staphylococcus aureus has three known adhesins, the laminin receptor (21), fibronectin receptor (13,14,22,24,25), and collagen receptor (17,26), and some putative adhesins, including teichoic acid (2,3,(6)(7)(8), lipoteichoic acid (9), protein A (11), etc. S. aureus may have other adhesins because host cells have many kinds of molecules other than the known extracellular matrices on the surface.…”