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The Throat Flora and Its Mitogenic Activity in Patients with Kawasaki Disease
Author(s) -
Horita Norihisa,
Yokota Shinichi,
Fuse Shigeto,
Takamuro Motoki,
Tomita Hideshi,
Sato Kiyoshi,
Fujii Nobuhiro,
Tsutsumi Hiroyuki
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.tb03609.x
Subject(s) - superantigen , pathogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , throat , kawasaki disease , flora (microbiology) , immunology , etiology , staphylococcus aureus , bacteria , medicine , anatomy , artery , genetics
The etiology of Kawasaki disease (KD) remains unknown, although some infectious organism has been suggested as the cause. Recent studies suggest that some bacterial toxins with superantigen activity are involved in its pathogenesis, but no specific bacterial toxin has yet been identified. Throat swabs for bacterial culture were obtained from 21 patients with KD and 20 with other febrile illnesses as controls. Mitogenic activity in culture supernatants obtained from individual bacterial strains was measured by lymphocyte proliferation assay. Sixty‐one bacterial strains were isolated from KD patients, and 62 strains from control patients. There was no apparent difference in bacterial species in the throat flora between KD patients and febrile controls. Moreover, total and individual mitogenic activity of strains from KD patients was no greater than that of strains from febrile controls. The bacterial superantigen activity of throat flora may not play a major role in the pathogenesis of KD.