Paracellular Pathway-Mediated Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae Migration across Porcine Airway Epithelial Barrier under Air-Liquid Interface Conditions

is an important respiratory pathogen of pigs that causes persistent and secondary infections. However, the mechanisms by which this occurs are unclear. In this study, we established air-liquid interface culture systems for pig bronchial epithelial cells (ALI-PBECs) that were comparable to the conditions in the native bronchus We used this ALI-PBECs model to study the infection and migration characteristics of Based on the results, we confirmed that was able to adhere to ALI-PBECs and disrupt mucociliary function. Importantly, could migrate to the basolateral chamber through the paracellular route but not the transcellular pathway, and this was achieved by reversibly disrupting tight junctions (TJs) and increasing the permeability and damaging the integrity of the epithelial barrier. We examined the migration ability of using an ALI-PBECs model for the first time. The disruption of the epithelial barrier allowed to migrate to the basolateral chamber through the paracellular route, which may be related to immune evasion, extrapulmonary dissemination, and persistent infection of .