[In vitro model for the analysis of the interaction between Shigella flexneri and the intestinal epithelium]

An in vitro study of the adhesion and invasion of Shigella flexneri was implemented, by means of incubation of laminary cuts of cecal mucosa of Dunkin-Hartley guinea pigs in a suspension of Shigella flexneri, which was isolated from a patient with bacillary dysentery. The laminae were placed in plastic chambers for two hours at 37%C. After this the bacterial suspension was discarded so as to eliminate the bacilli which were not adhered. The epithelium was washed with saline and was processed for analysis with scanning electron microscope. The topology of the mucosa incubated with Shigella flexneri was similar to that of the witnesses. The bacteria which adhered to the mucosa were dispersed individually or in clumps of varied numbers. The main alteration observed upon the epithelial surface were depressions due to a lateral separation of the microvilli which may have originated the endocytic stomas containing bacterias. The results of this study allow the proposition of the use of explants, so as to study the interaction between Shigella flexneri and the intestinal epithelium, with the possibility of modifying different experimental variables.