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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1324-1330, Vol. 38, No. 4
Department of Biological Science, Faculty of
Science, Nara Women's University, Kitauoya-Nishimachi, Nara
630-8506,1 Health and Epidemiology,
Osaka City Institute of Public Health and Enviromental Sciences,
Tennoji, Osaka 543-0026,2 and Department
of Parasitology, Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu
500-8705,3 Japan
Received 10 September 1999/Returned for modification 22 November
1999/Accepted 13 January 2000
The genotype Blastocystis hominis is highly
polymorphic. Therefore, a genetic marker would be a powerful tool for
the identification or classification of B. hominis subtypes
and could be used as a means to resolve the transmission route or
origin of the parasite. To this end, 32 B. hominis isolates
were collected from patients and/or staff members of two long-term
health care facilities (facilities A and B), and these organisms were
subjected to genotype analysis based on diagnostic PCR primers and
restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of small subunit rRNA
gene (rDNA). Based on PCR amplification using diagnostic primers which
were developed from randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis of
known strains of B. hominis, the 32 isolates of B. hominis were classified into three different subtypes. Thirty
isolates, including twenty-four that were isolated from patients and a
staff member, from facility A and all isolates isolated from six
patients from facility B showed the same genotype. Two of six patients
of facility B had been transferred from facility A, and these two
patients also had the same-genotype B. hominis that
corresponded to 24 isolates from facility A. This genotype strain may
have been transmitted by these two patients from facility A to facility
B, suggesting human-to-human transmission. In contrast, 2 of 26 isolates from facility A showed distinct genotypes, suggesting that the
colonization by these two isolates is attributable to another
infectious route. These different subtypes were subjected to RFLP
analysis, and the RFLP profiles were correlated with the results
obtained by diagnostic PCR primers. This study presents the first
molecular evidence of possible human-to-human B. hominis
infection between and/or among two small communities.
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Genomic Analysis of Blastocystis hominis
Strains Isolated from Two Long-Term Health Care Facilities
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Nara Women's University,
Kituoya-Nishimachi, Nara 630-8506, Japan. Phone: 81-742-20-3423. Fax:
81-742-20-3423. E-mail: sb56013{at}cc.nara-wu.ac.jp
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