Insights into Campylobacter jejuni colonization and enteritis using a novel infant rabbit model

Abstract

A lack of relevant disease models for Campylobacter jejuni has long been an obstacle to research into this common enteric pathogen. Here we used an infant rabbit to study C. jejuni infection, which enables us to define several previously unknown but key features of the organism. C. jejuni is capable of systemic invasion in the rabbit, and developed a diarrhea symptom that mimicked that observed in many human campylobacteriosis. The large intestine was the most consistently colonized site and produced intestinal inflammation, where specific cytokines were induced. Genes preferentially expressed during C. jejuni infection were screened, and acs, cj1385, cj0259 seem to be responsible for C. jejuni invasion. Our results demonstrates that the infant rabbit can be used as an alternative experimental model for the study of diarrheagenic Campylobacter species and will be useful in exploring the pathogenesis of other related pathogens.

Diarrhea Syndrome Caused by Campylobacter Jejuni in Calves

“…In the current study, infected untreated rabbits showed marked disruption of the villous epithelial surface in the small intestine, damage of the brush border was noted in areas adjacent to bacteria that appeared to be bound to the epithelial cells, all appear to contribute to villus disruption and the breakdown of epithelial barrier function, this may be attributed to effacement of microvilli, re-distribution of cytoskeletal and tight junction proteins, and extrusion of epithelial cells in the small intestine as recorded by Nemelka et al (2009). Our histopathological finding revealed that microbial activities occurring mainly at the intestinal level and more significant than extraintestinal invasion as no histologic changes were seen in livers, kidneys, lungs, or mesenteric lymph nodes, that agreed with Shang et al (2016) who reported that peritoneal histopathologic evaluation revealed no significant changes in infected animals at anytime during the study.…”

“…The clinical signs and pathological lesions produced in the rabbits like those observed in humans and other large-animal models. C. jejuni multiplied in the distal small intestine and cecum of rabbits with large populations of C. jejuni, indicating its possible role in the pathogenesis of campylobacteriosis (Shang et al, 2016). Although diarrhea resolved spontaneously by day 4 post infection, the untreated rabbits may excrete bacteria asymptomatically for as long as 2 wk, these results supported by Black et al (1988); Wassenaar and Blaser (1999).…”

“…Samples were blocked for 30 min with 5% bovine serum albumin and incubated for 1 h with an in-house mouse polyclonal antiserum against C. jejuni or without serum as a control. Samples were then incubated with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG (1:5000; Sigma) for 1 h, developed with 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole, counterstained with hematoxylin, and mounted with aqueous mounting medium (Shang et al, 2016).…”

“…Antimicrobial susceptibility test represents one of the most important an epidemiological tool and definition of the proper treatment of infections, consequently preventing or creating strategies that minimize the dissemination of resistant bacterial strains, mainly multiresistant ones especially Campylobacter spp (Shang et al, 2016), which has a potentially serious impact on food safty in both animal and human health (Hagos et al, 2021).…”

Magnitude of Rotavirus A and Campylobacter jejuni infections in children with diarrhea in Twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan

“…The clinical symptoms range from moderate watery diarrhea to severe inflammatory diarrhea which may lead to complications including Guillain Barre’ Syndrome [13] . In developing countries C. jejuni is responsible for 0.4 episode of diarrhea per child per year [14].…”