Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Kimberley Huynh
Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Dzenita Muratovic
Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Nicholas J Gunn
Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Anja R Zelmer
Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Lucian Bogdan Solomon
Centre for Orthopaedic & Trauma Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia; Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, Australia
Examination of bacteria/host cell interactions is important for understanding the aetiology of many infectious diseases. The colony forming unit (CFU) has been the standard for quantifying bacterial burden for the past century, however, this suffers from low sensitivity and is dependent on bacterial culturability in vitro. Our data demonstrate the discrepancy between the CFU and bacterial genome copy number in an osteomyelitis-relevant co-culture system and we confirm diagnosis and quantify bacterial load in clinical bone specimens. This study provides an improved workflow for the quantification of bacterial burden in such cases.
