Abstract
Objectives Alginate production (mucoid phenotype) of P. aeruginosa is a marker of chronic biofilm infection in the lungs of CF patients. Little is known about the occurrence of alginate-producing P. aeruginosa in CF patients outside Europe and North America. We therefore decided to study the occurrence of the alginate phenotype in P. aeruginosa from chronically infected CF patients in a CF center in Brazil and CF centers in Scandinavia (Ciofu et al., 2008). Methods The phenotype was classified according to Schurr et al. (1994): Type I: mucoid (M) on PIA ( Pseudomonas isolation agar) and LB agar, type II: mucoid on PIA but non-mucoid (NM) on LB, type III: non-mucoid on both, type IV: very slight but detectable mucoidy on both media after ≥4 days incubation. Results See the table. TableDistribution of different alginate phenotypesType I TypeII Type III Type IVBoth M&NM isolates from 20 Brazilian patients95%40%65%Both M&NM isolates from 83 Scandinavian patients89%17%87%6%Only NM isolates from 12 Brazilian patients92%8%Only NM isolates from 8 Scandinavian patients75%25% Conclusion Generally, the results show rather similar distributions of the Brazilian and Scandinavian isolates on the different phenotypes (Table). This probably reflects common selective environment in the lungs of CF patients in Brazil and Scandinavia, since the countries are widely separated and have completely different climate and geography, whereas the public medical systems are tax-based in all 4 countries. We are now sequencing the mucA and algT genes of the isolates which are responsible for the alginate phenotypes.
Published Version
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