Shigella-type pathomechanism in the "mouse model"

A strain of Escherichia coli K-12 carrying the 140-Megadalton virulence plasmid of the enteroinvasive E. coli--J53(pSPl)--showed high virulence in the "mouse model", in chick embryos, but not in the Serény test. It expresses the outer membrane proteins thermoregulatedly, encoded also by the virulence plasmid. In orally infected streptomycin-pretreated mice this strain infects only the large bowel, shows adherence to the epithelial surface, but in its first step preferentially to the mucus excreted by the goblet cells. Epithelial penetration and intracellular multiplication occurs with a characteristic localization of bacteria in the depth of crypts. Consequence of the infection is degeneration of the epithelial surface, its denudation.