Question

15.  Patients with Clostridium difficile infections have diarrhea and can have severe infections in their peritoneal cavities (peritonitis) and blood (sepsis). The diarrhea and widespread infections result, at least in part, from altered cell adhesions in cells lining the colon.

A.  [2 pts] What type of cells line the colon, and what type of adhesion linking these cells is likely altered in difficile infection?

B.  [4 pts] How could changes to the cell adhesions you listed in part A promote infections in the blood and peritoneal cavity?  Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Clostridioides difficile is caused by C. difficile or C. diff, is a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon.It most commonly affects older adults in hospitals or in long-term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medications.

A) Mucous Colon Epithelial Tissue (simple columnar epithelium) is lining the digestive system, from the mouth to the anus, follows the general scheme of hollow organs composed of four layers: the inner layer or mucosa epithelium, the submucosa, the muscularis, and the outer protective layer known as the adventitia or serosa.

In human, C. difficile interacts with a loose outer mucus layer, and is colonized by bacteria. The organism thux colonizes the intestine and maintain infection. The mucus provides an interface for bacterial-host interactions and changes in intestinal mucus have been linked host health. C. difficile binds preferentially adhere to epithelial cells in vitro therefore gut mucosal adhesion is altered in this disease.

B) C. difficile spores lie dormant inside the colon until a person takes an antibiotic. The antibiotic disrupts the other bacteria that normally are living in the colon and preventing C. difficile from transforming into its active, disease-causing bacterial form. As a result, C. difficile transforms into its infectious form and then produces toxins (chemicals) that inflame and damage the colon. The inflammation results in an influx of white blood cells to the colon. The severity of the colitis can vary. In the more severe cases, the toxins kill the tissue of the inner lining of the colon, and the tissue falls off. The tissue that falls off is mixed with white blood cells (pus) and gives the appearance of a white, membranous patch covering the inner lining of the colon ,thereby affectig the peritoneum. This severe form of C. difficile colitis is called pseudomembranous colitis because the patches appear like membranes, but they are not true membranes.