[Interaction with the Hep-2 epithelial cells of Sh. flexneri R mutants and hybrids differing in O antigen structure]

The results of a study of the interaction of the R-mutants of Sh. flexneri of various chemotypes and shigellae hybrids with a definite genetic characteristics differing by structure of the O-antigen labeled with 3H-glucose, with the cells of the HEp-2 line demonstrated that the presence of the full value lipopolysaccharide structure apparently promoted the fixation of shigellae to the epithelial cells. The rough shigellae strains could retain the capacity to penetrate into the cells and to multiply partially in their cytoplasm, this pointing to the existence of additional factors providing the invasiveness of dysentery bacillae independent of the full value structure of the polysaccharide of their O-antigen.