Investigating The Anti-apoptotic Effects of Shigella Flexneri Infection In Epithelial Cells

Shigella flexneri is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular pathogen that causes bacillary dysentery by invading the colonic epithelium. Previous research has shown that Shigella induces a rapid cell death in macrophages. In infected epithelial cells however only a stress response is observed and the eukaryotic cells remain viable during infection. Since S. flexneri utilizes epithelial cells for replication and survival, the hypothesis of this dissertation is that S. flexneri inhibits apoptosis in epithelial cells in order to establish a replicative niche inside the host. An apoptosis assay was developed by adding staurosporine, a chemical inducer of the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, to the standard invasion assay.