Figure 3. Ex-vivo binding of uropathogens encoding fibrinogen-binding proteins to fibrinogen deposited on human urinary catheters.

Urinary catheters from patients with preoperative negative urine culture were used to test the binding of A) E. faecalis, B) S. aureus, and C) C. albicans to fibrinogen deposited onto the catheter. Catheters were incubated with 2 × 10⁷ CFU of the corresponding strain for 1 hour. Detection of the presence and distribution of bacteria and Fg was assessed by immunofluorescent staining. A non-infected catheter was used for each strain for comparison. Catheters incubated only with the secondary antibodies were used as a negative control to assess auto-fluorescence background of the catheter material. Moreover for the E. faecalis binding experiment (A), we used the E. faecalis wild type (OG1RF) and a known fibrinogen deficient mutant (AWAGA) for comparison.