Acid-resistant cell wall

Acid-resistant cell wall describes a special type of cell wall structure in mycobacteria , which makes these bacteria very resistant to environmental influences, acids , antibiotics and phagocytosis .

The acid-fast cell wall occurs in certain gram-positive bacteria and is characterized by a wax layer over the murein sacculus . This wax layer consists of mycolic acids . Due to the extreme impermeability to hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances, these bacteria slow food intake and slow growth, the generation times are particularly long, up to over 24 hours. An inhibition of the mycolic acid synthesis can be achieved with isoniacid and pyrazinamide .

The type of mycolic acids, which differ in their long aliphatic chains, often determines the pathogenicity of mycobacteria. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis , the mycolic acids are bound to trehalose , and the bacteria form cord- shaped cell associations ( cord factor ) as they multiply .

literature

• Klaus Aktories , Ulrich Förstermann , Franz Hofmann, Klaus Starke (eds.): General and special pharmacology and toxicology (founded by W. Forth, D.Hentschler and W. Rummel). Urban & Fischer, Munich, Jena 2005, ISBN 3-437-42521-8 .