Meningococcal biofilm growth on an abiotic surface - a model for epithelial colonization?

The article presents a study on the possibility of setting the meningococcal biofilm growth as model for epithelial colonization. Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) invades the human nasopharynx with the possibility of life-threatening infection, and carriage of such is believed to lead to specific meningococal diseases immunity. Such aggregated organisms cling to the epithelial surface of the nasopharynx. A hypothesis is presented wherein the state when aggregated organisms attach to the epithelial surface is the biofilm state, and to further explore the this state, biofilm formation by a serogroup on an abiotic surface of a sorbarod system was investigated.