Cutting Edge: Brucella abortus Exploits a Cellular Prion Protein on Intestinal M Cells as an Invasive Receptor

• Published in: The Journal of immunology (1950) Vol. 189; no. 4; pp. 1540 - 1544
• Main Authors: Nakato, Gaku, Hase, Koji, Suzuki, Michio, Kimura, Masanobu, Ato, Manabu, Hanazato, Misaho, Tobiume, Minoru, Horiuchi, Motohiro, Atarashi, Ryuichiro, Nishida, Noriyuki, Watarai, Masahisa, Imaoka, Koichi, Ohno, Hiroshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.08.2012
• Subjects: Animals; Brucella abortus; Brucella abortus - metabolism; Brucella abortus - pathogenicity; Brucellosis - metabolism; Intestinal Mucosa - metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Knockout; Peyer's Patches - metabolism; PrPC Proteins - metabolism; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Brucella abortus is a Gram-negative bacterium causing brucellosis. Although B. abortus is known to infect via the oral route, the entry site in the gastrointestinal tract has been unclear. We found that B. abortus was selectively internalized by microfold cells (M cells), a subset of epithelial cell...