Am J Pathol 1998,152(5):1247–1258.PubMed 27. Walmer DK, Wrona selleck inhibitor MA, Hughes CL, Nelson KG: Lactoferrin expression in the mouse reproductive tract during the natural estrous cycle: correlation with

circulating estradiol and progesterone. Endocrinology 1992,131(3):1458–1466.PubMedCrossRef 28. Cohen MS, Britigan BE, French M, Bean K: Preliminary observations on lactoferrin secretion in human vaginal mucus: variation during the menstrual cycle, evidence of hormonal regulation, and implications for infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1987,157(5):1122–1125.PubMed 29. Fahey JV, Wira CR: Effect of menstrual status on antibacterial activity and secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor production selleck compound by human uterine epithelial cells in culture. J Infect Dis 2002,185(11):1606–1613.PubMedCrossRef 30. Beagley KW, Gockel CM: Regulation of innate and adaptive immunity by the female sex hormones oestradiol and progesterone. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 2003,38(1):13–22.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions AA carried out the molecular genetic and microarray studies, participated in the microarray analysis and

drafted the manuscript. CW designed microarray chip and participated in the microarray analysis. KB conceived the study and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. JL participated in the cell culture and provided the initial samples. IS revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. PT participated in the design of the study, project coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Cronobacter spp. (formerly Enterobacter sakazakii) is a non-spore forming,

motile, facultative anaerobic Gram-negative bacillus and belongs to family Enterobacteriaceae [1, 2]. Initially isolates of Cronobacter spp. (Cronobacter) were identified as yellow pigment producing Enterobacter cloacae. Later, Farmer et al., [3] reclassified them as a new species and were given the name sakazakii based on DNA-DNA homology, antibiotic susceptibility patterns and certain unique biochemical characteristics such as catalase Amoxicillin production, the absence of oxidase and the production of yellow pigment in all tested strains. More recent studies utilizing full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing, ribotyping, fluorescent-amplified fragment length polymorphism and DNA-DNA hybridization have demonstrated that Cronobacter is a heterogenic genus exhibiting a high degree of genetic and phenotypic diversity among species and comprises six species: C. muytjensii, C. sakazakii, C. malonaticus, C. turicensis, C. dublinensis and C. genomospecies I [4–7]. Cronobacter is considered an emerging pathogen; though, little is known about its virulence properties and antigenic determinants [8].