Effects of Physicochemical Factors and Bacterial Colony Morphotype on Association of Vibrio vulnificus with Hemocytes of Crassostrea virginica.

Vibrio vulnificus is a naturally occurring marine bacterium that causes invasive disease of immunocompromised humans following the consumption of raw oysters. It is a component of the natural microbiota of Gulf Coast estuaries and has been found to inhabit tissues of oysters, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin 1791). The interaction of V. vulnificus with oyster host defenses has not been reported in detail. We examined the interaction of V. vulnificus with phagocytic oyster hemocytes as a function of time, temperature, bacterial concentration, pretreatment with hemolymph, and V. vulnificus translucent and opaque colony morphotypes. Within these experimental parameters, the results showed that the association of V. vulnificus with hemocytes increased with time, temperature, and initial V. vulnificus/hemocyte ratio. Pretreatment of V. vulnificus with serum or an increased serum concentration did not enhance V. vulnificus-hemocyte associations, a result suggesting the absence of opsonic activity. More than 50% of hemocytes bound the translucent, avirulent morphotype, whereas 10 to 20% were associated with the opaque, virulent form, a result indicating that the degree of encapsulation was related to resistance to phagocytosis, as previously described for mammalian phagocytes. Understanding these cellular interactions may, in part, explain the persistence of V. vulnificus in oyster tissues and the ecology of V. vulnificus in estuarine environments.