Effect of Clostridium perfringens β-Toxin on Platelets
1
Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Institute of Animal Pathology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
2
Institute of Virology and Immunology, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
3
Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
4
Division of Veterinary Anatomy, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012 Bern; Switzerland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Harald Genth
Toxins 2017, 9(10), 336; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9100336
Received: 2 October 2017 / Revised: 19 October 2017 / Accepted: 20 October 2017 / Published: 24 October 2017
(This article belongs to the Collection Clostridium difficile/Clostridium sordellii and Clostridium perfringens Toxins)
Clostridium perfringens β-toxin (CPB) is the major virulence factor of C. perfringens type C causing a hemorrhagic enteritis in animals and humans. In experimentally infected pigs, endothelial binding of CPB was shown to be associated with early vascular lesions and hemorrhage but without obvious thrombosis of affected vessels, suggesting altered hemostasis in the early phase of the disease. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of CPB on platelets, with respect to primary hemostasis. Our results demonstrate that CPB binds to porcine and human platelets and forms oligomers resulting in a time- and dose-dependent cell death. Platelets showed rapid ultrastructural changes, significantly decreased aggregation and could no longer be activated by thrombin. This indicates that CPB affects the physiological function of platelets and counteracts primary hemostasis. Our results add platelets to the list of target cells of CPB and extend the current hypothesis of its role in the pathogenesis of C. perfringens type C enteritis.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
Clostridium perfringens type C; beta-toxin; platelets
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Thiel, A.; Mogel, H.; Bruggisser, J.; Baumann, A.; Wyder, M.; Stoffel, M.H.; Summerfield, A.; Posthaus, H. Effect of Clostridium perfringens β-Toxin on Platelets. Toxins 2017, 9, 336. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9100336
AMA Style
Thiel A, Mogel H, Bruggisser J, Baumann A, Wyder M, Stoffel MH, Summerfield A, Posthaus H. Effect of Clostridium perfringens β-Toxin on Platelets. Toxins. 2017; 9(10):336. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9100336
Chicago/Turabian StyleThiel, Anne; Mogel, Helga; Bruggisser, Julia; Baumann, Arnaud; Wyder, Marianne; Stoffel, Michael H.; Summerfield, Artur; Posthaus, Horst. 2017. "Effect of Clostridium perfringens β-Toxin on Platelets" Toxins 9, no. 10: 336. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9100336
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit