TY - JOUR TI - Virulence Studies of Clostridium difficile AU - Francis , Michael B. AU - Sorg, Joseph A. VL - 3 IS - 24 PY - 2013 DA - 2013/12/20 SP - e1002 C1 - Bio-protocol 2013;3:e1002 DO - 10.21769/BioProtoc.1002 UR - https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.1002 AB - Clostridium difficile (a Gram-positive, spore-forming, strict anaerobe) can colonize antibiotic-treated hosts (McFarland, 2008). Antibiotics alter the composition of the normal, benign microbial flora which leads to loss of colonization resistance (Wilson and Perini, 1988; Antonopoulos et al., 2009). C. difficile spores germinate to actively growing bacteria which secrete toxins that damage the colonic epithelium (Voth and Ballard, 2005). The use of animal models of C. difficile disease have allowed the identification of mechanisms of colonization and virulence factors (Lyras et al., 2009; Kuehne et al., 2010; Francis et al., 2013; Aubry et al., 2012; Carter et al., 2011). This protocol describes virulence studies of C. difficile in the hamster model of C. difficile infection (Bartlett et al., 1978; Sambol et al., 2001). KW - Clostridium difficile KW - Spore KW - Virulence KW - Hamster KW - Animal model JF - Bio-protocol SN - 2331-8325 PB - Bio-protocol LLC. BIO101 - False