Growth assessment of Helicobacter pylori in liquidmedium – effect of aggregation

Helicobacter pylori is a pathogenic organism associated with gastric diseases. It is described that H. pylori can change morphology when exposed to adverse conditions and H. pylori cells can aggregate in clusters when in liquid culture. Such phenomenon makes it difficult to assess growth using the conventional methods. The development of robust methods to assess growth in a more reliable way is needed. In the present work a method that allows efficient cell disaggregation was developed.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) PhD Grant (SFRH/BD/47596/2008