Altered gene expression in Staphylococcus aureus upon interaction with human endothelial cells

Staphylococcus aureus is isolated from a substantial number of patients with infective endocarditis who are not known to have predisposing heart abnormalities. It has been suggested that the infection is initiated by the direct binding of S. aureus to human vascular endothelium. To determine the mutual response of the endothelial cells and the bacteria, we studied the interaction between S. aureus and human vascular endothelium. Scanning electron microscopic analyses showed that binding of S. aureus to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) mainly occurred via thread-like protrusions extending from the cell surface. Bound bacteria appeared to be internalized via retraction of the protrusions into newly formed invaginations of the endothelial cell surface. The growth phase of S. aureus had a major impact on the interaction with HUVEC. Logarithmically growing bacteria showed increased binding to, and were more readily internalized by, HUVEC compared to stationary-phase bacteria. To assess the bacterial response to the cellular environment, an expression library of S. aureus was used to identify genes whose expression was induced after 4 h of exposure to HUVEC. The identified genes could be divided into different categories based on the functions of the encoded proteins (transport, catabolism, biosynthesis, and DNA repair). Further analyses of five of the S. aureus transposon clones showed that HUVEC as well as human serum are stimuli for triggering gene expression in S. aureus.