Acinetobacter nosocomialis secretes outer membrane vesicles that induce epithelial cell death and host inflammatory responses.

Acinetobacter nosocomialis is an important nosocomial pathogen that causes a variety of opportunistic infections; however, pathogenesis of this microorganism has not yet been characterized. The aim of this study was to investigate the secretion of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from A. nosocomialis and to determine their cytotoxic effects and their ability to induce inflammatory responses both in vitro and in vivo by using human epithelial HEp-2 cells and a mouse model, respectively.