Adherence to epithelial cells and enzyme production of methicillin-resistant, coagulase-negative staphylococci

Abstract

We examined the pathogenic potential of methicillin-resistant, coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCNS). Significant numbers of all the MRCNS strains tested adhered to epithelial cells. In more than half the MRCNS strains tested, the average number of attached bacteria exceeded 500 per epithelial cell. Strong adherence to epithelial cells (more than 1,000 /cell) was seen in 15.6% of the MRCNS. Many strains produced lipase (48.8%), lecithinase (43.8%), DNase (28.8%), β-lactamase (26.3%) or hyaluronidase (13.8%). These results indicate that the pathogenic potential of MRCNS may be equivalent to that of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.