Assessing Bacterial Invasion of Cardiac Cells in Culture and Heart Colonization in Infected Mice Using Listeria monocytogenesP. David McMullen 1, Nancy E. Freitag 1
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago
Listeria monocytogenes causes fetal infections in pregnant women and meningitis in susceptible populations. Subpopulations of bacteria can colonize cardiac tissue, causing myocarditis in patients and laboratory animals. Here we present a protocol that describes how to assess L. monocytogenes cardiac cell invasion in vitro and cardiac colonization in infected animals.
