Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found definitive proof that some of the bacteria that plague women with urinary tract infections (UTIs) are entrenched inside human bladder cells.
The finding confirms a controversial revision of scientists’ model of how bacteria cause UTIs. Previously, most researchers assumed that the bacteria responsible for infections get into the bladder but do not invade the individual cells that line the interior of the bladder.
“Our animal model of UTIs has allowed us to make a number of predictions about human UTIs, but at the end of the day, we felt it was critical to show this in humans, and now we’ve done just that,” says senior author Scott J. Hultgren, Ph.D., the Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the School of Medicine.
Release date: December 17, 2007
Source: Washington University School of Medicine
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
