Osteomyelitis and intraosteoblastic Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Chronic osteomyelitis is a disease process that is characterized not infrequently by periods of clinical quiescence interspersed by symptomatic episodes of varying duration and severity. These periods of clinical quiescence have been attributed to several possible factors, including effective host defenses that keep the process at bay as well as glycocalyceal sequestration of the implicated pathogen. Recent work has demonstrated a potential third explanation for this phenomenon, that is, intracellular incorporation of the pathogen within the host osteoblast. This is a report of a successful osteoblast cell culture demonstrating the facultative intraosteoblastic location of a human osteomyelitis Staphylococcus aureus isolate as well as its microscopic features.