Survival and growth of Burkholderia cepacia within the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba polyphaga

The aim of this study was to investigate whether Burkholderia cepacia is ca pable of survival and growth within the free-living amoeba Acanthamoeba pol yphaga using a differential immunofluorescence assay of bacterial-amoebal c ocultures and viable counts of bacteria determined after amoebal lysis. The numbers of intra-amoebal bacteria and the numbers of infected amoebae incr eased over time; although, when heat-killed bacteria were used, no intracel lular bacteria were observed, These findings should be taken into account i n future studies of environmental reservoirs of Burkholderia cepacia.