Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide-Producing Lactobacilli on Wild Type and Catalase-Deficient Neisseria gonorrhoeae in a Murine Model of Gonococcal Genital Tract Infection

摘要

The majority of morbidity associated with Neisseria gonorrhoeae (pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility) occurs in women. Survival of the gonococcus in the female genital tract is challenged by a variety of host defenses including inhibitory commensal flora. Lactobacilli, the predominant facultative anaerobic microflora in the female genital tract, produce many potential inhibitory products. We demonstrated the capacity of L. crispatus and L. jensenii, two human vaginal commensals, to inhibit N gonorrhoeae in vitro and determined the major mediator of inhibition to be hydrogen peroxide. L. crispatus was selected as the best candidate to protect against N gonorrhoeae based on greatest in vitro inhibition and highest production of lactate. Groups of mice were inoculated intravaginally with L. crispatus or left untreated, and challenged with wild- type or catalase mutant FAl090 three hours later. There was no difference in the duration of recovery of either gonococcal strain from mice that were or were not pre- colonized with L. crispatus. These data suggest many factors may be involved in the complicated interaction between lactobacilli and gonococci in vivo.