Campylobacter jejuni strains from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome belong mostly to Penner serogroup 19 and contain beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues.
Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from stool cultures from 14 (30%) of 46 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome and from 6 (1.2%) of 503 healthy persons, and the difference was highly significant (p < 0.0001). In addition, serological evidence of recent C. jejuni infection was found in 5 of 29 patients with negative stool cultures. Therefore, 41% of patients were associated with C. jejuni infection. Ten of 12 (83%) isolates from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome belonged to Penner serogroup 19, which is a rare serogroup in sporadic patients with C. jejuni enteritis. In the lectin typing study, all serogroup 19 strains from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome were shown to contain terminal beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues on their cell surface, but serogroup 19 strains from patients with enteritis were not.
Department of Pediatrics, Kobe City General Hospital, Japan.
S
S
Kuroki
T
T
Saida
M
M
Nukina
T
T
Haruta
M
M
Yoshioka
Y
Y
Kobayashi
H
H
Nakanishi
D000117:Acetylglucosamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011129:Polyradiculoneuropathy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000117:Acetylglucosamine