Adhesion of Aeromonas sp. to cell lines used as models for intestinal adhesion

Adhesion to HEp-2 cells has been shown to correlate with enteropathogenicity for Aeromonas species. Such adhesion is thought to reflect the ability of strains to adhere to human intestinal enterocytes, although HEp-2 cells are not of intestinal origin. In this study strains of Aeromonas veronii biotype sobria isolated from various sources were investigated in parallel assays for their ability to adhere to HEp-2 cells and to an intestinal cell line (Caco-2). Quantitative assays showed identical adhesion values were obtained with both cell lines. Adhesion was best when bacteria were grown at 22 °C compared with 37 °C and 7 °C. Some environmental isolates showed greater adhesion when grown at 7 °C than when grown at 37 °C. Filamentous structures on these strains are also optimally expressed under the above conditions (reported elsewhere). Mechanical shearing or trypsin treatment to remove surface structures from several adhesive strains grown at 22 °C decreased adhesion to cell lines by 50–80% providing further indirect evidence that filamentous adhesins may play a role in cell adhesion for this Aeromonas species.