L. Baldassarri et al., EXPRESSION OF SLIME INTERFERES WITH IN-VITRO DETECTION OF HOST PROTEIN RECEPTORS OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS-EPIDERMIDIS, Infection and immunity, 65(4), 1997, pp. 1522-1526
We hypothesized that slime may mask bacterial molecules important in t
he attachment of Staphylococcus epidermidis to inanimate surfaces. In
support of this hypothesis, we found that slime-negative strains attac
hed significantly better to fibrinogen or fibronectin than the parent
strains and exhibited greater surface hydrophobicity. Comparable resul
ts were obtained with 53 clinical isolates.