Mechanisms of bacillary dysentery: lessons learnt from infant rabbits.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Yum LK; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine , Charlottesville, VA, USA.; Agaisse H; Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine , Charlottesville, VA, USA.
- Source
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101495343 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1949-0984 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19490976 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Gut Microbes Subsets: MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
The bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri causes more than 250 million cases of bacillary dysentery (blood in stool) every year across the world. This human-specific disease is characterized by profuse bloody diarrhea, dramatic ulceration of the colonic epithelium and immune cell infiltration of the colonic tissue. A major challenge in understanding the mechanisms supporting bacillary dysentery is the reliance on animal models that do not fully recapitulate the symptoms observed in humans, including bloody diarrhea. Here we outline advances provided by a recently developed infant rabbit model of bacillary dysentery. The infant rabbit model defines bacillary dysentery as a critical combination of massive vascular lesions and dramatic epithelial fenestration due to intracellular infection and cell-to-cell spread, respectively. The infant rabbit model provides an unprecedented framework for understanding how the cell biology of Shigella flexneri infection relates to pathogenesis.