Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2000, p. 5301-5305, Vol. 66, No. 12
Department of Nutrition, Quality and Safety, NIZO Food
Research, 6710 BA Ede,1 and Wageningen
Center for Food Sciences, 6700 AN
Wageningen,2 The Netherlands
Received 18 May 2000/Accepted 29 September 2000
The urinary nitric oxide metabolites NO2
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Quantifying Translocation of Listeria
monocytogenes in Rats by Using Urinary Nitric Oxide-Derived
Metabolites
and NO3
(summed as NOx) are a
noninvasive, quantitative biomarker of translocation of salmonella from
the intestinal lumen to systemic organs. Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne gram-positive pathogen that can also cross the intestinal epithelium. In this study, we tested the
efficacy of urinary NOx as a marker of listeria
translocation. Rats (eight per group) were orally infected with
increasing doses of L. monocytogenes; control rats received
heat-killed listeria. The kinetics of urinary NOx and
population levels of listeria in feces were determined for 7 days.
Another group of rats was killed 1 day after infection to verify
translocation by culturing viable listeria from systemic organs. Oral
administration of increasing doses of L. monocytogenes
resulted in a time- and dose-dependent increase in urinary
NOx excretion. Translocation was a prerequisite for
inducing a NOx response, since heat-killed L. monocytogenes did not elevate NOx excretion in urine.
Fecal counts of listeria also showed dose and time dependency.
Moreover, the number of viable L. monocytogenes cells in
mesenteric lymph nodes also increased in a dose-dependent manner and
correlated with urinary NOx. In conclusion, urinary
NOx is a quantitative, noninvasive biomarker of listeria translocation.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: NIZO Food
Research, Department of Nutrition, Quality and Safety, P.O. Box 20, 6710 BA Ede, The Netherlands. Phone: 31 318 659511. Fax: 31 318 650400. E-mail: Sprong{at}NIZO.nl.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»