Localized, diffuse, and aggregative-adhering Escherichia coli from infants with acute diarrhea and matched-controls

Abstract

Of 126 infants under 2 years, enrolled in a study on the etiology of acute diarrhea in Recife, Brazil, we selected 37 from whom no recognized enteropathogens, except classic enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, were identified. For comparison, we also examined 37 matched-control infants without diarrhea seen at the same hospital setting. This paper had the purpose to determine the prevalence of localized, diffuse, and aggregative-adhering E. coli strains in both groups. Three to five fecal E. coli colonies, of each case and control, were tested individually for adherence to HeLa cells by using the one step 3-h incubation assay. Strains of E. coli showing localized adherence were found significantly more often in patients (37.8%) than in controls (13.5%), p < 0.02, and they were practically confined to EPEC serovars 055:H-, 0111:H2, and 119:H6. In contrast, E. coli isolates exhibiting the diffuse or aggregative patterns of adherence were restricted to non-EPEC serogroups and were more frequently encountered among controls.

Enteropathogenicity markers in Escherichia coli isolated from infants with acute diarrhoea and healthy controls in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…No pathogen other than EPEC was isolated from 44 of these 49 cases. These findings as well as others obtained in Brazil [3, 40,42] implicate EPEC as the main cause of infantile diarrhoea in the large Brazilian urban centres and emphasise the role of this micro-organism as an important cause of acute diarrhoea in developing countries [2, 13,431. The incidence of ETEC was very low.…”

“…All isolates were negative in the FAS test and did not hybridise with the eaeA, EAF and EAggEC probes. Several auth,ors did not find any association of DAEC with acute infantile diarrhoea [9,13,42,49]. However, Giron et al [14] and Jallat et al [53] reported its isolation with significant frequency from cases of acute diarrhoea.…”

Genetic elements associated with antimicrobial resistance in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) from Brazil

“…In the current study, traI and traC markers from the resistance plasmid were identified in strains belonging to the serotypes O55:H6, O127:H6, and O119:H6, as well as O55 and O119 atypical strains that carry vestiges of the EAF plasmid (see Additional file 1). To determine whether this broader distribution among Brazilian isolates was a recent development, we screened 36 archival EPEC strains that were isolated in the 1970s and 1980s from children with diarrhea in São Paulo [12], and the plasmid was predominately found in O111:H2, O119:H6 and O142:H6 strains (data not shown), which were among the most common circulating serovars at that time [2,13,31]. …”