Infection of rabbit Peyer's patches by Shigella flexneri: effect of adhesive or invasive bacterial phenotypes on follicle-associated epithelium

In order to invade the colonic mucosa, the bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri must find a site of entry. Experiments with the rabbit ligated intestinal loop model described here confirm that M cells of the follicle-associated epithelium (FAE) that covers lymphoid structures of the Peyer's patches represent a major site of entry for invasive microorganisms. In addition, in an isogenic Shigella background, expression of an adhesive phenotype, or of an invasive phenotype, is required for bacteria to efficiently colonize the FAE. A nonadhesive, noninvasive mutant barely interacted with FAE. Adhesive and invasive strains induced dramatic but different alterations on FAE. Invasive strain M90T caused major inflammation-mediated tissue destruction after 8 h of infection. Adhesive strain BS15 caused limited inflammation, but major architectural changes, characterized by an increase in the size of M cells that became stretched over large pockets containing an increased number of mononuclear cells, were observed. M cells progressively occupied large surface areas of the FAE at the expense of enterocytes. This contributed to enterocytes losing contact with the lumen. These experiments demonstrate that various remodeling patterns may occur in Peyer's patches in response to bacterial pathogens, depending on the virulence phenotype expressed by the pathogenic strain.