Abstract
The gram-negative bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila is a cause of fulminant and lethal necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTIs). Suppressing the rapid proliferation of the pathogen and expansion of the necrosis caused in the host is an important issue in clinical practice, but the pathogenic mechanism for the rapid aggravation has not been clarified. In this study, we characterized the function of two types of motor stators in A. hydrophila and explored the role of motility during wound infection. In vitro analysis showed that the motility was reliably maintained while being complemented by the stators. We created a non-motile strain that lacked genes encoding two types of motor stators and analyzed the role of motility in a murine wound infection model. Examination of the bacterial burden in the local infection site and systemic circulation revealed that motility was not essential for the proliferation of A. hydrophila in the host. However, the extent of necrosis at the lesions was lower, and survival times were prolonged in mice infected with the non-motile strain compared with mice infected with the parent strain. These results provide evidence that the rapid expansion of necrosis and the progression to death within a short time period is dependent on the motility of A. hydrophila.
Highlights
Aeromonas hydrophila is a rod-shaped, motile, and gram-negative bacterium that is found in wastewater, sewage, and food [1,2,3]
The homologies of MotAB of A. hydrophila were highest to MotAB of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, which has been reported to function as a proton channel
These results demonstrated that the motility contributes to the severity and rapid spread of soft tissue lesions during the A. hydrophila infection
Summary
Aeromonas hydrophila is a rod-shaped, motile, and gram-negative bacterium that is found in wastewater, sewage, and food [1,2,3]. Most cases of A. hydrophila wound infection occur in healthy people [1,10]. The wound infections due to A. hydrophila can progress to necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI) [7,8]. Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is the most serious presentation of NSTI, an aggressive subcutaneous infection that spreads along the superficial fascia, which comprises the skin and underlying muscles, and its rapid dissemination can result in more severe disease manifestations such as sepsis [8,9,10,13,14]
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