Incidence and Prevalence of Serotypes of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli from Diarrheal Patients in Brazil, Myanmar and Japan

Abstract

By using HeLa cells, we tried to detect enteroaggregative Escherichia coli from stock strainsderived from infants with or without diarrhea in Brazil and Myanmer, and from diarrheal patients in Osaka, Japan. Enteroaggregative E. coli was detected from 7.9% in diarrheal cases, 5.6% in controlcases in Brazil and from 5.4% in diarrheal cases, 3.4% in control cases in Myanmar. A total of 38 strainsthat showed aggregative adherence to HeLa cells was examined for colony hybridization with the ³²P-labeled EAgg EC probe. Thirty-four strains hybridized with the EAgg EC probe, while 4 strains didnot hybridize with the probe, suggesting an existence of another aggregative factor. Seventeen of the38 strains were 0-antigen serotypeable. Eight strains belonged to serogroups 044, 086, 0111, 0125and 0126, which have been considered to be enteropathogenic E. coli serogroups. Most of the 38strains were H-antigen serotypeable.