Evidence for the CP as gateway has been gathered from histopathological examinations of patients with meningococcal disease, where larger amounts of bacteria were found in the vessels as well as in the epithelium of the CP (Pron et al., 1997; Guarner et al., 2004), and N. meningitidis invades HIBCPP cells from the basolateral side in vitro. The gene discussed is CP; the disease is meningococcal infection.