[Advance on the pathogenicity and immunological application of bacterial flagella--a review]

Being a surface structure of bacteria, flagella have been thought to simply act as the locomotive organelles for a long time. In recent years, as increasing information gathered from studies on the pathogenicity of flagella, we found flagella could contribute to invasion and adhesion to the host cells, playing an important role in the biofilm formation and being correlated with bacterial virulence secretion system. Binding of flagellin and toll-like receptor 5 may stimulate signaling pathway, resulting in the pro-inflammatory response. Meanwhile, flagella act as a new immune adjuvant as well, because of their good immunity character. This article summarizes the current knowledge of bacterial flagella, including their structure, contribution to the pathogenicity of the bacteria, and their potential application in immunity.