Adherence of S. bovis to adult buccal epithelial cells

The ability of S. bovis 83/5364, glucan-positive (biotype I) and S. bovis R 81/536 glucan-negative (biotype II) to adhere to buccal epithelial cells (BEC) by lipoteichoic acid (LTA) was examined. LTA from both biotypes was prepared by cold phenol extraction from supernatants of penicillin supplemented cultures and partially purified by Sepharose CL-6B chromatography. Both glucan-positive and glucan-negative S. bovis strains adhered to BEC, but biotype I seemed to be more adhesive. For both biotypes the adhesion was not significantly inhibited by treatment of the bacteria with anti-LTA serum, while the preincubation of BEC with LTA, extracted from S. agalactiae, or cardiolipin strongly decreased the S. bovis binding.