Isolation of Enterococcus faecalis clinical isolates that efficiently adhere to human bladder carcinoma T24 cells and inhibition of adhesion by fibronectin and trypsin treatment.

The adherence of Enterococcus faecalis strains to human T24 cells was examined by scanning electron microscopy. Five highly adhesive strains were identified from 30 strains isolated from the urine of patients with urinary tract infections. No efficiently adhesive strains were found among the 30 strains isolated from the feces of healthy students. The five isolated strains also adhered efficiently to human bladder epithelial cells. Analysis of restriction endonuclease-digested plasmid DNAs and chromosome DNAs showed that the five strains were different strains isolated from different patients. The adhesiveness of these strains was inhibited by treatment with fibronectin or trypsin, implying that a specific protein (adhesin) on the bacterial cell surface mediates adherence to fibronectin on the host cell surfaces, and the adhesin differs from the reported adhesins.