The papA gene in uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains was characterized by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)- PCR. One hundred four E. coli strains from patients with urinary tract infections and 32 strains from healthy persons were examined. Thirty seven (27.2%) strains (33 from patients, 4 from healthy persons) in the 136 E. coli strains were positive in mannose resistant hemagglutination (MRHA) test. The adherence of MRHA positive strains to HEp-2 cells was greater than those of MRHA negative isolates (p<0.001). PapA-PCR were positive in 25% (26/104) of the strains from patients, and 3.1% (1/32) of the strains from healthy persons. Among 27 papA-positive isolates, subtypes were identified by RFLP as 8 (29.6%) F7z, 3 (11.1%) F9, 4 (14.8%) F12, and 4 (14.8%) F13. Six groups with novel RFLP patterns were detected, also. The subtypes of P-fimbriae was highly similar to each other by ERIC-PCR.
Consensus ; Hemagglutination ; Humans ; Mannose ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Uropathogenic Escherichia coli*