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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 1998, p. 2178-2182, Vol. 36, No. 8
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Identification of Toxin A-Negative, Toxin B-Positive Clostridium difficile by PCR

Haru Kato,1,dagger Naoki Kato,1,* Kunitomo Watanabe,1 Naoichi Iwai,2 Haruhi Nakamura,2 Toshinobu Yamamoto,3 Kanzo Suzuki,3 Shin-Moo Kim,4 Yunsop Chong,5 and Eddy Bagus Wasito6

Institute of Anaerobic Bacteriology, Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu,1 and Department of Pediatrics, Meitetsu Hospital,2 and Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoyashi Koseiin Geriatric Hospital,3 Nagoya, Japan; Department of Clinical Pathology, Wonkwang Public Health Junior College, Iri,4 and Department of Clinical Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul,5 Korea; and Tropical Disease Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia6

Received 6 March 1998/Returned for modification 13 April 1998/Accepted 28 April 1998

Toxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile have been reported to produce both toxins A and B nearly always, and nontoxigenic strains have been reported to produce neither of these toxins. Recent studies indicate that it is not always true. We established a PCR assay to differentiate toxin A-negative, toxin B-positive (toxin A-, toxin B+) strains from both toxin-positive (toxin A+, toxin B+) strains and both toxin-negative (toxin A-, toxin B-) strains as an alternative to cell culture assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). By using the PCR primer set NK11 and NK9 derived from the repeating sequences of the toxin A gene, a shorter segment (ca. 700 bp) was amplified from toxin A-, toxin B+ strains compared to the size of the segment amplified from toxin A+, toxin B+ strains (ca. 1,200 bp), and no product was amplified from toxin A-, toxin B- strains. We examined a total of 421 C. difficile isolates by PCR. Of these, 48 strains showed a shorter segment by the PCR, were negative by ELISAs for the detection of toxin A, and were positive by cell culture assay. Although the cytotoxin produced by the toxin A-, toxin B+ strains was neutralized by anti-toxin B serum, the appearance of the cytotoxic effects on Vero cell monolayers was distinguishable from that of toxin A+, toxin B+ strains. By immunoblotting, the 44 toxin A-, toxin B+ strains were typed to serogroup F and the remaining four strains were serogroup X. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis separated the 48 strains into 19 types. The PCR assay for the detection of the repeating sequences combined with PCR amplification of the nonrepeating sequences of either the toxin A or the toxin B gene is indicated to be useful for differentiating toxin A-, toxin B+ strains from toxin A+, toxin B+ and toxin A-, toxin B- strains and will contribute to elucidation of the precise role of toxin A-, toxin B+ strains in intestinal diseases.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Anaerobic Bacteriology, Gifu University School of Medicine, 40 Tsukasa-machi, Gifu 500-8705, Japan. Phone: 81-58-267-2342. Fax: 81-58-265-9001. E-mail: nk19{at}cc.gifu-u.ac.jp.

dagger Present address: Department of Bacteriology, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 1998, p. 2178-2182, Vol. 36, No. 8
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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