Surface Properties of Staphylococcus aureus Affecting Chemiluminescence Response of Human Phagocytes

Abstract

To assess the surface properties of Staphylococcus aureus affecting the response of human phagocytes, the effects of the organisms with different surface properties on the chemiluminescence (CL) response of human phagocytes were examined. The magnitude of the phagocytic CL response to hydrophobic strains was significantly greater than that to hydrophilic strains, while no significant difference in the CL response was seen between protein A-deficient strains and their parent strains.The CL response to the hydrophilic organisms prepared from a hydrophobic strain by trypsin treatment decreased significantly.These results suggest that the phagocytic CL response to staphylococci depends on the hydrophobicity of the surface, but not on the presence of protein A. Two protein A-deficient strains which were isolated from protein A-positive strains showed identical hydrophobicity with their parent strains. All of the hydrophilic strains isolated from hydrophobic strains possessed protein A identical to that of their parent strains.Moreover, a hydrophilic strain could be isolated from a protein A-deficient, hydrophobic strain. These results strongly suggest that protein A is not solely responsible for the surface hydrophobicity of S. aureus.

Feeding selection of heterotrophic marine nanoflagellates based on the surface hydrophobicity of their picoplankton prey

“…1997). Moreover, the positive correlation between picoplankton prey hydrophobicity and nanoflagellate grazing rate is consistent with a large body of literature dealing with empirical and theoretical studies of phagocytic processes in mammalian immune systems (van Oss 1978; Absolom et al 1982;Absolom 1988;Maródi 1990;Yamada and Matsumoto 1990;Yamada et al 1993). Finally, the positive correlation between grazing rates and cell hydrophobicities for Prochlorococcus cultures (Fig.…”

“…A familiar example of this force's action is the coalescence and separation of a nonpolar liquid phase from a polar liquid phase after vigorous agitation in a common organic chemistry separation procedure. In the medical literature, bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity is known to vary widely and is viewed as an important parameter regulating contact probability and vulnerability to phagocytosis by mammalian leukocytes (van Oss 1978;Absolom 1988;Maródi et al 1990;Yamada and Matsumoto 1990). By analogy, if picoplankton populations in natural aquatic ecosystems exhibit a range of cellular hydrophobicity, and particularly if the strength of this attractive force varies among different groups or as a function of physiological state, such variations could be important for understanding the rates and selectivities of the predators feeding upon them.…”

Cell-wall thickness: possible mechanism of acriflavine resistance in meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

“…Although about 80 % of S. aureus 209P cells remained in the aqueous phase after mixing with n-octane, only approximately 30 % of MRSA KT24 cells remained in the aqueous phase (data not shown). Based on the criteria for distinguishing between hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties described by Yamada & Matsumoto (1990), MRSA KT24 was found to have a hydrophobic surface, whilst S. aureus 209P cells were hydrophilic. Dominant hydrophobicity is probably due to proteins and proteinassociated molecules localizing at the surface of the organism and is believed to arise from a lack of teichoic acid, protein A or coagulase production (Reifsteck et al, 1987).…”