Influence of some factors on adherence of S. aureus and S. agalactiae to a bovine mammary secretory epithelial cells (BME-UV1)

The bovine mammary epithelial cell line (BME-UV1) was incubated with a suspension of S. aureus (108/ml) for 30min at 37°C in a 5% CO2 atmosphere. Observation under the light microscope (10×100) in 20 visible fields showed visible fields with 100 epithelial cells on average were selected for counting. The results were presented as the number of visible fields out of 20 in which adherence was observed. The results showed that adherence of isolated strains of S. aureus occurred in 2-20 visible fields, and 0-16 for S. agalactiae, which indicates a high degree of variation in adherence among the isolated strains tested. The difference in adherence between tested strains of a single species of bacteria was statistically significant, but there was no difference between the examined strains of S. aureus and S. agalactiae. Strains of S. aureus which formed capsules did not show significantly less adherence for the bovine mammary gland secretory epithelial cells (BME-UV1) than strains of S. aureus which did not form capsules. The strains of S. aureus which produced slime did not show significantly higher adherence for the BME-UV1 cells than the strains which did not produce slime. The adherence of isolated strains of S. aureus to the BME-UV1 cells did not depend on their capability to produce toxins, or on their plasmid profile.