Direct Detection of Tissue-Resident Bacteria and Chronic Inflammation in the Bladder Wall of Postmenopausal Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection

Publication date: Available online 17 April 2019Source: Journal of Molecular BiologyAuthor(s): Nicole J. De Nisco, Michael Neugent, Jason Mull, Luming Chen, Amy Kuprasertkul, Marcela de Souza Santos, Kelli L. Palmer, Philippe Zimmern, Kim OrthAbstractUrinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most commonly reported infections in adult women and have high rates of recurrence, especially in postmenopausal women. Recurrent UTI (RUTI) greatly reduces quality of life, places a significant burden on the healthcare system, and contributes to antimicrobial resistance. Because treatment of RUTI by long-term antibiotic therapy is often ineffective or poorly tolerated in elderly women, new therapies must be developed. The molecular basis of RUTI, especially in postmenopausal women, has remained unclear because modeling RUTI in mice is difficult, and human data are limited. Invasion of the urothelium and induction of host inflammation are hypothesized to be key mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens cause RUTI. To further our understanding of RUTI in humans, we performed a systematic analysis of urine and bladder biopsy samples from postmenopausal women undergoing cystoscopy with fulguration of trigonitis (CFT) in the advanced management of antibiotic-refractory RUTI. We provide direct evidence that bacteria reside in the bladder wall of postmenopausal RUTI patients and that diverse bacterial species can be isolated from the bladder tissue. Histopathological scoring revealed significant ed...
Source: Journal of Molecular Biology - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research