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Occurrence of the Fimbria Gene hifA in Clinical Isolates of Nonencapsulated Haemophilus influenzae
Author(s) -
Nakamura Masahiko,
Asaka Toshiyuki,
Kirita Akiko,
Miyazaki Hatsumi,
Senda Yasuko,
Fujita ShinIchi,
Fukushima Ritsuko,
Watanabe Kishichiro,
Karasawa Tadahiro,
Kawahara Ei,
Shimura Satoshi,
Yamagishi Takayoshi
Publication year - 2006
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.1348-0421.2006.tb03800.x
Subject(s) - fimbria , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , haemophilus influenzae , pasteurellaceae , pilus , gene , carriage , bacteria , bacterial adhesin , virology , escherichia coli , genetics , antibiotics , medicine , pathology
The adherence of Haemophilus influenzae to epithelial cells plays a crucial role in infections. However, little is known about the occurrence of fimbriae. In this study, we examined the distribution of the fimbria gene ( hifA ) by PCR among 167 H. influenzae strains isolated from patients with respiratory infections. Almost all (163; 98%) of the isolates were nonencapsulated strains. The carriage rate of hifA by the nonencapsulated strains was 18.4%. Electron microscopy showed that fimbriae were abundantly present on the cell surface of hifA ‐positive strains tested. Only four (2.4%) isolates were encapsulated, all of which were type b and did not possess hifA . The present work suggests that fimbriae may play a considerable role as adhesins in nonencapsulated H. influenzae strains.