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Novel Evidence Suggesting Clostridium difficile Is Present in Human Gut Microbiota More Frequently than Previously Suspected
Author(s) -
Iizuka Masahiro,
Konno Shiho,
Itou Hiroaki,
Chihara Junichi,
Toyoshima Itaru,
Horie Yasuo,
Sasaki Kenji,
Sato Akiko,
Shindo Kenichi,
Watanabe Sumio
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1348-0421
pISSN - 0385-5600
DOI - 10.1111/j.1348-0421.2004.tb03607.x
Subject(s) - clostridium difficile , feces , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , clostridium difficile toxin a , clostridium difficile toxin b , gut flora , polymerase chain reaction , human feces , clostridium , toxin , clostridiaceae , bacteria , antibiotics , immunology , gene , biochemistry , genetics
Prevalence rate of Clostridium difficile in healthy human adults is believed to be very low. Our RT‐PCR system using glass powder, which can eliminate PCR inhibitors, detected C. difficile toxin B mRNA in 16 of 30 fecal samples (53.3%) from healthy human adults. In contrast, we failed to detect toxin B in the same fecal samples by PCR using DNA templates extracted with phenol‐chloroform. Our results suggest that PCR inhibitors in feces carried through phenol‐chloroform extraction procedure might suppress the sensitivity of PCR and that C. difficile is actually present in human gut microbiota more frequently than previously suspected.