
The colony-forming-unit (CFU) method is unreliable for quantifying intracellular bacterial load in osteomyelitis, as it fails to capture non-culturable bacteria. A workflow combining direct DNA lysis and digital droplet PCR provides a more accurate and rapid assessment of bacterial burden in both in vitro and clinical bone infection samples.


coremsg

Examination of bacteria/host cell interactions is important for understanding the aetiology of many infectious diseases. The colony-forming-unit (CFU) has been the standard for quantifying bacterial burden for the past century, however, this suffers from low sensitivity and is dependent on bacterial culturability in vitro . Our data demonstrate the discrepancy between the CFU and bacterial genome copy number in an osteomyelitis-relevant co-culture system and we confirm diagnosis and quantify bacterial load in clinical bone specimens. This study provides an improved workflow for the quantification of bacterial burden in such cases.

### Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Beyond the Colony-Forming-Unit: Rapid Bacterial Evaluation in Osteomyelitis

improved-quantification-of-intracellular-bacterial-load-in-osteomyelitis-using-digital-droplet-pcr


Improved Quantification of Intracellular Bacterial Load in Osteomyelitis Using Digital Droplet PCR
