ADHERENCE OF ENTEROBACTERIACEAE TO HUMAN BUCCAL CELLS

Abstract
A preliminary examination has been made of the adherence to human buccal cells of 3H-thymidine labelled strains of Enterobacteriaceae isolated from sputa. The radioadherence method was found to correlate well with the conventional light-microscope adherence technique. Saturation of buccal-cell binding sites with bacteria occurred when less than 10% of the buccal-cell surface was occupied. The adherence of Enterobacter aerogenes to buccal cells was impaired by the prior adherence of bacilli of either the same strain, or of a strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae.