Infection of Mammalian Hepatocytes by Francisella tularensis LVS

Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of Tularemia, is a facultative intracellular parasite. The goal of this project is to examine how F. tularensis infects and replicates within mammalian cells, and the impact of such an infection upon the signaling pathways within the host cell. The murine embryonic hepatocyte cell line TIB-73 serves as our model system for infection by F. tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS). The number of bacteria associated with hepatocytes was quantified via adhesion, invasion and intracellular replication assays. We have determined that a large multiplicity of infection (MOI) of F. tularensis LVS is required to infect the hepatocyte cells. The infective capacity of F. tularensis LVS in hepatocytes was found to be ineffective below an MOI of 0.1. Western blotting was used to determine the presence of various kinases in hepatocytes before infection with F. tularensis LVS