Bacterial Adhesion to Host Tissues Mechanisms and Consequences

About this book

This book is about the adhesion of bacteria to their human hosts. Although adhesion is essential for maintaining members of the normal microflora in/on their host, it is also the crucial first stage in any infectious disease. It is important, therefore, to fully understand the mechanisms underlying bacterial adhesion so that we may be able to develop methods of maintaining our normal (protective) microflora, and of preventing pathogenic bacteria from initiating an infectious process. These topics are increasingly important because of the growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and, consequently, the need to develop alternative approaches for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. This book describes the bacterial structures responsible for adhesion and the molecular mechanisms underlying the adhesion process. A unique feature is that it also deals with the consequences of adhesion for both the adherent bacterium and the host cell/tissue to which it has adhered.

Contents

Part I. Bacterial Adhesins and Adhesive Structures: 1. Surface protein adhesins of staphylococci T. J. Foster; 2. Mechanisms of utilisation of host signalling molecules by respiratory mucosal pathogens Mumtaz Virji; 3. Surface structures of oral streptococci involved in adhesion Roderick McNab, Pauline S. Handley and Howard F. Jenkinson; 4. Regulation and function of phase variation in Escherichia coli Ian Blomfield; 5. Regulation of capsule expression Clare Taylor and Ian Roberts; 6. Role of pili in Haemophilus influenzae adherence, colonization, and disease Janet R. Gilsdorf; Part II. Effect of Adhesion on Bacterial Structure and Function: 7. Transcriptional regulation of meningococcal gene expression upon adhesion to target cells Muhamed-Kheir Taha; 8. Induction of protein secretion by Yersinia enteroclitica through contact with eukaryotic cells Dorothy E. Pierson; 9. Functional modulation of pathogenic bacteria upon contact with host target cells Andreass U. Kresse, Frank Ebel and Carlos A. Guzman; Part III. Consequences of Bacterial Adhesion for the Host: 10. Adhesion, signal transduction and mucosal inflammation Catharina Svanborg et al.; 11. Adhesion of oral spirochaetes to host cells and its cytopathogenic consequences Richard P. Ellen; 12. Interactions between enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and epithelial cells Elizabeth L. Hartland, Gad Frankel and Stuart Knutton; 13. Host cell responses to Porphyromonas gingivalis and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Richard Lamont.

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Biography

Michael Wilson is currently Professor of Microbiology in the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University College London, and Head of the Department of Microbiology at the Eastman Dental Institute, University College London. He is the co-editor of Community Structure and Co-operation in Biofilms, 2000 (0521 793025) and co-author of Bacterial Virulence Mechanisms, 2002 (0521 79689X).