Tuyển tập báo cáo các nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế ngành y học dành cho các bạn tham khảo đề tài: Bacterial adherence to mucosal epithelium in the upper airways has less significance than believed | Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine BioMed Central Research Open Access Bacterial adherence to mucosal epithelium in the upper airways has less significance than believed Anders Ebenfelt Address Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head Neck Surgery Sahlgrenska University Hospital S-413 45 Goteborg Sweden Email Anders Ebenfelt - Corresponding author Published 9 June 2003 Received 4 October 2002 Accepted 9 June 2003 Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine 2003 2 3 This article is available from http content 2 l 3 2003 Ebenfelt licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose provided this notice is preserved along with the article s original URL. Abstract Background Bacterial adherence to the upper airway epithelium is considered to be an important phenomenon in the pathogenesis of infections. However the evidence for the hypothesis that bacterial adherence to mucosal epithelial cells has significance for pathogenesis of mucosal infections is based on studies using indirect techniques. We could find no biopsy studies with direct ocular observations of significant numbers of bacteria adhering to upper airway mucosal epithelial cells either in health or during disease. Results We studied specimens from healthy and infected tonsillar epithelium and specimens from the soft palate epithelium obtained by surgery. The specimens were examined by TEM. In the vast majority of specimens we found no bacteria adhering to the epithelial cells in the mucosal line regardless of whether the patient was infected or not. Bacteria adhering to shed epithelial cells were seen in higher numbers. Furthermore as bacteria are small compared to epithelial cells we calculated the risk of overlooking every adhered bacteria in a section if bacterial adherence was such a significant phenomenon as earlier suggested. We found this risk to be .
