Uropathogenic Escherichia coli with usp gene induces the rapid early stage apoptosis of HeLa cells / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the distribution of pathogenic genes in uropathogenic Esche-richia coli (UPEC) from urinary specimen and to analyze the pathogenicity of UPEC and their mechanism of apoptosis to HeLa cells. Methods We have analyzed 6 pathogenic genes among the 28 strains of the clini-cally isolated E. coli from urinary tract infected patients. The 6 pathogenic genes were surveyed by using the PCR amplification of the target genes. The adhesion experiments and tryphan-blue staining was used to screen the phenotype of the pathogenic strains, while Annexin V/PI method was applied to study the strains to cause apoptosis of the HeLa cells, which was further confirmed with electronic microscopy. Results We have detected 6 strains that carried the usp gene. Phenotype screening identified two high virulent isolates (strain 6N and 27N) from the 6 strains. Strain 27N and 6N contained very similar virulence gene profile ex-cept that strain 27N did not contain usp gene. Both strains can destroy HeLa cell within 3 hours causing cell death. Results of apoptosis detected by flow cytometry revealed that strain 6N induced 20.75% of HeLa cells to an early stage apoptosis within 1.5 hours. On the other hand, strain 27N induced only 1.55% of HeLa cells to apeptosis. Conclusion High virulent UPEC strain carrying usp gene can induce HeLa cell rapid early apoptosis.