Francisella tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS) is a facultative intracellular bacterium, which causes lethal disease in several mouse strains (Fortier et al. 1991). A huge body of information dealing with the mechanisms of Francisella tularensis infection of various mouse cell lines is available (Macela 1980, Fortier et al. 1992). In this study we used in vitro infection of murine macrophage-like cell line J774 for the standardization of another in vitro model, which could be more universal for the studies of bacteria — host pathogen interactions, more precise assignment of early stages of primary infection of host cells, and characterization of intracellular compartment associated with ingested bacteria, respectively. A subsequent goal of our study was identification of the expression of genes encoding for selected cytokines under the influence of infection and the study of final fate of primary infected cells....

Keywords: Francisella tularensis; lvs infection