Bacterial Adherence

General concepts and principles of bacterial adherence in animals and man; Adherence of normal flora to mucosal surfaces; Bacterial adherence and the formation of dental plaques; Mechanisms of adherence of Streptococcus mutans to smooth surfaces in vitro; Structure and cell membrane-binding properties of bacterial lipoteichoic acids and their possible role in adhesion of Streptococci to eukaryotic cells; Attachment of Mycoplasma pneumoniae to respiratory epithelium; Adhesive properties of Enterobacteriaceae; The adhesive properties of Vibrio cholerae and other Vibrio species; Adherence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and other Neisseria species to mammalian cells;Structure and cell membrane-binding properties of bacterial fimbriae: Adherence of marine micro-organisms to smooth surfaces; Microbial adherence in plants; Cell recognition systems in eukaryotic cells; Prospects for preventing the association of harmful bacteria with host mucosal surfaces.

Research on bacterial adhesion and its significance is a major field involving many different aspects of nature and human life, such as marine science, soil and plant ecology, most importantly, the biomedical field. The adhesion ofbacteria to the food industry, and human tissue surfaces and implanted biomaterial surfaces is an important step in the patho genesis of infection. Handbook 0/ Bacterial Adhesion: Principles, Methods, and Applications is an outgrowth of the editors' own quest for information on laboratory techniques for studying bacte rial adhesion to biomaterials, bone, and other tissues and, more importantly, a response to significant needs in the research community. This book is designed to be an experimental guide for biomedical scientists, biomaterials scientists, students, laboratory technicians, or anyone who plans to conduct bacterial adhesion studies. More specifically, it is intended for all those researchers facing the chal lenge of implant infections in such devices as orthopedic prostheses, cardiovascular devices or catheters, cerebrospinal fluid shunts or extradural catheters, thoracic or abdominal catheters, portosystemic shunts or bile stents, urological catheters or stents, plastic surgical implants, oral or maxillofacial implants, contraceptive implants, or even contact lenses. It also covers research methods for the study of bacterial adhesion to tis sues such as teeth, respiratory mucosa, intestinal mucosa, and the urinary tract. In short, it constitutes a handbook for biomechanical and bioengineering researchers and students at all levels.

Bacteria adhere to and colonize almost any surface. Within minutes after sub merging a solid object in seawater or freshwater, the surface becomes colonized by adherent micro-organisms, and the earliest organisms to adhere are bacteria. Adherent colonies of bacteria have also been observed on particles of sand, soil, other bacteria, plant tissues, and a variety of animal tissues. Shortly after birth, the skin and the mucosal surfaces of the upper respiratory tract and the gastro intestinal tract of animals and man become heavily colonized by a variety of adherent bacteria which persist in varying numbers as indigenous parasites. The apparent symbiotic balance between the host and his indigenous parasites oc casionally is upset by the invasion of harmful bacteria which adhere to and colonize these surfaces. Pathogenic bacteria may also adhere to and colonize normally sterile surfaces such as the mucosa of the genito-urinary tract and the lower respiratory tract, and occasionally even endothelial surfaces of the cardiovascular system, resulting in the development of serious infectious diseases. Although marine microbiologists have been aware for a long time that bacteria must stick to surfaces in order to avoid being swept away by moving streams of water, not until recently has it been widely recognized that adherence must be an important ecological determinant in the colonization of specific sites in plants and animals, and in particular an important early event in the pathogenesis of bacterial infections in animals and man. It is true that Dr G.

Attachment to host cells or tissues is often the first step in the establishment of bacterial infections. A complex array of recognition, attachment, and virulence factors is involved in this process, which recent research has greatly illuminated. This comprehensive and authoritative volume discusses the specific cell and tissue-specific affinities of pathogenic microorganisms, including bioinorganic surfaces such as teeth, and is an essential reference for researchers and students of host-pathogen interactions.

The Novartis Foundation Series is a popular collection of the proceedings from Novartis Foundation Symposia, in which groups of leading scientists from a range of topics across biology, chemistry and medicine assembled to present papers and discuss results. The Novartis Foundation, originally known as the Ciba Foundation, is well known to scientists and clinicians around the world.

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. It also deals with the consequences of adhesion for both the adherent bacterium and the host cell/tissue to which it has adhered.

Over the last few years, bacterial adhesion has become a more and more important and active scientific area, but the field lacks communication and scientific exchange between medical and microbiology researchers who work with the relevant biological systems, and biochemists, structural biologists and physicists, who know and understand the physical methods best suited to investigate the phenomenon at the molecular level. The field consequently would benefit from a cross-disciplinary conference enabling such communication. This book tries to bridge the gap between the disciplines.

It has been 80 years since the subject of bacterial adhesion to surfaces was first brought forth, but only in the last two decades has the importance of this subject been recognized by medical microbiologists. The fact that bacterial attachment to the host tissue is a prerequisite for infection understandably led to the hope that infections could be prevented by blocking the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria. Progress in this field has been so rapid that it has become difficult to keep up with recent developments. This book contains the proceedings of the symposium on the Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Adhesion, May 6-8, 1988. Both the symposium and this book were intended as an up-to-date review of the most recent findings concerning the adhesion of medically important bacteria. In addition, this book contains critical and provocative overviews of the past, present and future of this field.