Virulence genotypes, antibiotic resistance and the phylogenetic background of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from urinary tract infections of dogs and cats in Brazil.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a frequent disease of humans and pets and has extra-intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) strains as one of the main etiologic agent. ExPEC are characterized by specific virulence factors and are related to a heterogeneous group of human and animal disorders, besides to be a relevant participant in the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance. The purpose of this study was to characterize E. coli strains isolated from UTI of dogs and cats for serotypes, virulence markers, phylogenetic groups and sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs. E. coli was identified as the etiologic agent of UTI in urine samples of 43 pets (7 cats and 36 dogs). Serogroups O2, O4 and O6 corresponded to more than one third of the isolates, being 62% of the total strains classified as B2, 18% as D, 16% as B1 and 4% as A. The iucD (22%), fyuA (80%), traT (51%) and cvaC (20%) genes were distributed among the four phylogenetic groups, whereas the papC/papEF (47%) and malX (67%) genes were found only in groups B2 and D. There were a high number of resistant strains, with 76% of the strains belonging to groups A, B1 and D characterized as multidrug resistant (MDR), whereas only 21% had this phenotype in the group B2. The ExPEC strains isolated in this study displayed pathotypic and phylogenetic similarities with human isolates and high percentages of drug resistance. The finding of MDR ExPEC strains suggests implications for animal and public health and deserves more investigations.

Different inflammatory stimuli in the footpad of mice influence the kinetics of resident peritoneal cells.

OBJECTIVES: Evidence from the literature that inflammation is a systemic biological phenomenon prompted us to investigate whether inoculation of different irritants to the footpad of mice might influence the kinetics of resident peritoneal cells. METHODS: Mice were inoculated in the footpad at different time intervals with Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), Ehrlich ascitic tumor cells or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and resident peritoneal cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The results indicate that different stimuli induced different responses in resident peritoneal cells. FoxP3 positive regulatory T cells increased drastically in number after BCG inoculation. Conversely, tumor cell inoculation induced a decrease in FoxP3-positive T cells in the peritoneal cavity, although this effect was not statistically significant. Results also show that cells from the paw migrate to the popliteal lymph node and to the peritoneal cavity. Yet, there are cells in the peritoneal cavity that migrate to the popliteal lymph node. CONCLUSION: These data show that cells from the peritoneal cavity are influenced by pathologies in remote regions of the animal. How this novel phenomenon influences overall immune responses, courses of infection and tumor growth are open to further investigation.