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Updated: Aug 13, 2026
High-throughput Assay to Phenotype Salmonella enterica Typhimurium Association, Invasion, and Replication in Macrophages
Published on: August 12, 2014
Morphological and cytoskeletal changes in epithelial cells occur immediately upon interaction with Salmonella
C L Francis1, M N Starnbach, S Falkow
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, California 94305.
Abstract:
Salmonella typhimurium grown under oxygen-limiting conditions were found to enter into, elicit actin filament rearrangement in, and effect morphological changes upon HEp-2 cells within 15 min after infection. Video microscopy revealed that host cell morphological changes associated with entry began within 1 min of productive adherence. Polarized Caco-2 cell morphology was affected 40 s after infection with low-oxygen-grown S. typhimurium. Stationary-phase S. typhimurium did not elicit these phenomena within this time-period even when adherence was enhanced with the afimbial adhesin, AFA-I. Thus, environmental cues regulate S. typhimurium invasion factors, allowing for immediate entry into host cells. Additionally, actin filament rearrangement and morphological changes in the eukaryotic host cell are essential for entry and occur within minutes of infection.
