Background: The pathogenesis of infection with Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) organisms may be linked to its capacity to invade
respiratory epithelium.
Methods: An antibiotic exclusion assay was used to study B. dolosa AU4459 and B. cenocepacia J2315 invasion into wild-type (WT) and CFTRdeficient
respiratory epithelial cells. Inhibitors were used to evaluate Bcc invasion dependency on host microtubule (mt) and microfilament (mf) systems.
Results: B. dolosa entered WT-CFTR cells with 5-fold greater efficiency than CFTR deficient cells (25% vs 5%, respectively). Invasion dropped
to b0.5% after either mf or mt inhibition. B. cenocepacia entered WT (0.05%) and CFTR-deficient cells (0.07%) with similarly low efficiencies,
which significantly decreased with either mf or mt inhibition (0.008% and 0.002%, respectively).
Conclusion: B. dolosa and B. cenocepacia enter respiratory epithelial cells in a mf and mt dependent fashion. Mutated CFTR leads to less
internalization of B. dolosa, but not B. cenocepacia.
© 2009 European Cystic Fibrosis Society. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.