Pseudomonas aeruginosa are gram-negative bacteria that frequently infect the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. This bacterium is highly responsive to changes in its environment, resulting in the expression of a diverse array of genes that may contribute to the host inflammatory response. P. aeruginosa is well-known to induce neutrophilic inflammation via the activation of Toll-Like Recept...

No transgenic cystic fibrosis (CF) mouse model developed to date mimics the major clinical phenotype found in humans with CF, chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection. In a transgenic CF transmembrane conductance regulator (cftr) mouse colony, we found WT, heterozygous, and homozygous CF mice housed in the same cage became chronically colonized in the oropharynx with environmental P. aerug...

Eleven patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) chronically infected with mucoid P. aeruginosa and ten patients without P. aeruginosa infection were examined for occurrence of circulating immune complexes, for immune complex deposits in the dermo-epidermal junction of the skin and for precipitins against P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, H. influenzae and D. pneumoniae antigens. The serum concentrations of h...

Inadequate empirical antibiotic therapy for serious Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections has been linked to increased mortality. We performed a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia, bacteraemia or other sterile-site infections caused by P. aeruginosa occurring during Intensive Care Unit admissions. One hundred and fifty-eight episodes of serious i...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative opportunistic human pathogen often infecting the lungs of individuals with the heritable disease cystic fibrosis and the peritoneum of individuals undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Often these infections are not caused by colonization with P. aeruginosa alone but instead by a consortium of pathogenic bacteria. Little is known about g...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important cause of pulmonary infection in cystic fibrosis (CF). Its correct identification ensures effective patient management and infection control strategies. However, little is known about how often CF sputum isolates are falsely identified as P. aeruginosa. We used P. aeruginosa-specific duplex real-time PCR assays to determine if 2,267 P. aeruginosa sputum iso...

Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) is widely used for debridement of chronic infected wounds; however, for wounds harbouring specific bacteria limited effect or failure of the treatment has been described. Here we studied the survival of Lucilia sericata maggots encountering Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 in a simple assay with emphasis on the quorum-sensing (QS)-regulated virulence. The maggots wer...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans are disparate microbial species, but both are known to be opportunistic pathogens frequently associated with nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was to provide a better understanding of the interactions between these microorganisms in dual-species biofilms. Several bacteriophage-resistant P. aeruginosa phenotypes have been isolated and were u...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen which uses a number of strategies to cross epithelial and endothelial barriers at cell-cell junctions. In this review, we describe how the coordinated actions of P. aeruginosa's virulence factors trigger various molecular mechanisms to disarm the junctional gate responsible for tissue integrity.