Yes, thank you for posting this, Dbwilco!
And I really liked that they clarified this:
"That’s because once bacteria enter the bloodstream – say, from the bite of a tick – they face a great deal of force. Imagine a fast-flowing river: the bloodstream should exert enough force to sweep the bacteria through the circulatory system and into the liver, spleen and lungs, where they would be met by the body’s immune system and eliminated.
But in fact, the bacteria’s catch bonds grow stronger as they encounter more force from blood flow, which makes them particularly good at sticking to blood vessels.
Likening their imaging process to “plucking a single cell out of a haystack,” and filmed in real time, the researchers deduced that individual bacterium use ‘catch bonds’ and ‘tethers’, something like an anchor on a rope, to hook onto the blood vessel’s endothelial cells and slow down. The propeller-like structures which help bacteria propel forward appear to allow the bacteria active control of their movements, enabling them to wriggle out of the flowing river of blood and make their way into other parts of the body.
“This is the first time we’ve seen this with any bacterium,” said Moriarty."
And here is a hyper link for that article:
/www.utoronto.ca/news/how-bacteria-invade-u-t-research-sheds-light-age-old-mystery