[The biomedical aspects of the persistence of bacteria]

A correlation between the structure and function of bacteria was analyzed in the process of their persistence in the host body. A variety of persistent forms of bacteria was shown to be based on the isolation of their morphological substrate, peptidoglycane, which a cell "masked" (screening by surface bacterial structures, antigenic mimicry), "lost" (L-forms of bacteria, mycoplasmas) or protected against the system of host immunity by secreted factors. A new group of secreted bacterial (antilysozyme, anti-interferon, anti-immunoglobulin, anticomplement) factors, permitting microbial persistence in the host body, was described. Different methodological approaches to their determination were developed on the basis of the principle of "delayed antagonism". Applied aspects of the problem of persistence of bacteria were reviewed. The efficacy of new methods developed for the isolation and identification of a causative agent under the control of persistence markers was demonstrated on facultative microflora in different surgical, obstetrical, gynecological, urological diseases and diseases of internal organs. The facts concerning the use of the factors of bacterial persistence were presented for the solution of therapeutic (selection of means for controlling cell parasites), prognostic (development of carrier state in convalescents) and ecological (microbiological monitoring of the environment) problems.