Abstract
Infection of the amniotic cavity remains a major cause of preterm birth, stillbirth, fetal injury and early onset, fulminant infections in newborns. Currently, there are no effective therapies to prevent in utero infection and consequent co-morbidities. This is in part due to the lack of feasible and appropriate animal models to understand mechanisms that lead to in utero infections. Use of mouse and rat models do not fully recapitulate human pregnancy, while pregnant nonhuman primate models are limited by ethical considerations, technical constraints, and cost. Given these limitations, the guinea pig is an attractive animal model for studying pregnancy infections, particularly as the placental structure is quite similar to the human placenta. Here, we describe our studies that explored the pregnant guinea pig as a model to study in utero Group B Streptococci (GBS) infections. We observed that intrauterine inoculation of wild type GBS in pregnant guinea pigs resulted in bacterial invasion and dissemination to the placenta, amniotic fluid and fetal organs. Also, hyperhemolytic GBS such as those lacking the hemolysin repressor CovR/S showed increased dissemination into the amniotic fluid and fetal organs such as the fetal lung and brain. These results are similar to those observed in mouse and non-human primate models of in utero infection, and support use of the guinea pig as a model for studying GBS infections in pregnancy.
Highlights
Group B Streptococci are β-hemolytic gram-positive bacteria that commonly reside in the lower gastrointestinal tract of healthy women
Our initial observations with the pregnant guinea pig links intrauterine inoculation of Group B Streptococci (GBS) to bacterial invasion of placenta, amniotic fluid and fetal organs, which mirror what is observed in the pregnant mouse model and the nonhuman primate model of in utero GBS infection [7,30]
These results confirm the feasibility of this animal model for additional studies of GBS infections
Summary
Group B Streptococci are β-hemolytic gram-positive bacteria that commonly reside in the lower gastrointestinal tract of healthy women. Much work has been done to develop the pregnant mouse and non-human primate models of GBS infection during pregnancy [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. While the mouse is commonly used to study infections during pregnancy, limitations include key differences with human pregnancy in the mechanism of parturition, uterine and placental structure, gestational length and sensitivity to common perinatal pathogens [9].
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