Alcoholic liver disease is a leading cause of morbidity and liver-related death worldwide. Intestinal bacterial overgrowth and dysbiosis induced by ethanol ingestion play an important role in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease. After exposure to alcohol in the lumen, enteric bacteria alter their metabolism and thereby disturb intestinal homeostasis. Disruption of the mucosal barrier re...

In severe burn injury the unique setting of a depleted, dysfunctional immune system along with a loss of barrier function commonly results in opportunistic infections that eventually proof fatal. Unfortunately, the dynamic sequence of bacterial contamination, colonization and eventually septic invasion with bacteria such as Pseudomonas species is still poorly understood although a limiting fact...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Translocation of intestinal bacteria to ascitic fluid is probably the first step in the development of episodes of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with cirrhosis. We have recently reported the detection of bacterial DNA in blood and ascitic fluid from patients with advanced cirrhosis, what we consider as molecular evidence of bacterial translocation. Several st...

translocation components of organisms from all three domains of life. The Sec61/SecYEG Complex In all organisms, the core of the protein translocation apparatus is thought to be a heterotrimeric complex of integral membrane proteins, known as the SecYEG Boston, Massachusetts 02115 complex in bacteria (Brundage et al., 1990), and the ‡ Max Delbrü ck Center for Molecular Medicine Sec61 complex in...

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), like many bacterial pathogens, employ a type III secretion system to deliver effector proteins across the bacterial cell. In EPEC, four proteins are known to be exported by a type III secretion system_EspA, EspB and EspD required for subversion of host cell signal transduction pathways and a translocated intimin receptor (Tir) protein (formerly Hp90) wh...

Changes in bacterial communities are associated with the pathogenesis of many diseases including inflammatory bowel disease and liver disease. Dysbiosis can induce intestinal inflammation resulting in increased intestinal permeability and bacterial translocation. The majority of chronic liver diseases are associated with bacterial translocation resulting in or enhancing an inflammatory response...