University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Evading the immune system is also important to invasiveness. Bacteria use a variety of virulence factors to evade phagocytosis by cells of the immune system.
- capsule 
- coagulase
- antigenic variation

Bacterial Virulence Factors to Evade the Immune System

Capsules are used in adhesion but also help evade the immune system by preventing phagocytes from ingesting the cell. The capsule prevents immune cells from being able to adhere and then phagocytose the cell. The capsule also makes the cell much larger, which makes it harder for immune cells to engulf the pathogen

Bacterial Capsule

**Antigenic variation** is the alteration of surface proteins so that a pathogen is camouflaged and no longer recognized by the host’s immune system

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