Premium
Molecular identification of coliform bacteria from colicky breastfed infants
Author(s) -
Savino F,
Cordisco L,
Tarasco V,
Calabrese R,
Palumeri E,
Matteuzzi D
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2009.01419.x
Subject(s) - enterobacter cloacae , feces , medicine , enterococcus faecalis , microbiology and biotechnology , enterobacter , ribotyping , klebsiella oxytoca , fecal coliform , escherichia coli , enterobacter aerogenes , enterococcus , enterobacteriaceae , bacteria , veterinary medicine , klebsiella , biology , staphylococcus aureus , antibiotics , polymerase chain reaction , ecology , biochemistry , genetics , water quality , gene
Objective: To determine the presence of intestinal coliform bacteria in colicky vs healthy infants. Study design: We isolated coliform strains from faeces and performed quantitative bacterial cultures in 41 colicky and 39 healthy breastfed infants, identified using PCR with species‐specific primers, strain‐specific Automated Ribotyping and the API‐50E kit for Enterobacteriaceae to identify the most frequent strains. Results: Coliform strains were more abundant in colicky infants (median 6.04 log 10 CFU/g faeces, range 2.00–8.76) vs controls (median 4.47 log 10 CFU/g faeces, range 1.00–8.08) (p = 0.026). Escherichia coli , Klebsiella pneumoniae , K. oxytoca , Enterobacter cloacae , E. aerogenes and Enterococcus faecalis were the predominant species in colicky and healthy infants. The counts of each bacterial species differed between the two groups, and the difference was significant (p = 0.002) for E. coli : median 6.30 log 10 CFU/g faeces (range 3.00–8.74) in colicky infants, and median 4.70 log 10 CFU/g faeces (range 2.00–5.85) in controls. Conclusions: This is the first study to evaluate the colonization patterns of gas‐forming coliforms in colicky infants and healthy controls identified by molecular methods. Coliform bacteria, particularly Escherichia coli, were found to be more abundant in colicky infants. Our data could help to shed light on the cause of infantile colic.