title: Staphylococcus aureus in chronic and recurrent infections.
abstract: Ninety-four Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from chronic and recurrent skin and respiratory tract infections were investigated for several virulence factor expressions. Production of protein A was noticed in all of the tested strains in amounts from less than 0.1 to more than 2.5 ng per 10(6) bacterial cells. The percentage of the extracellularly produced protein A was found to lie between 4.5 and 27.8%. Two strains (both from the respiratory tract) produced more than 50% of protein A in the extracellular form and one strain did not produce any detectable amount of the extracellular protein A; 99% of the tested strains produced the clumping factor, 96% staphylocoagulase, 79% staphylokinase and 90% gelatinolytic activity; 79% produced alpha-toxin exclusively or in combination with delta- or beta-toxin; 8% of strains produced beta-toxin. There were differences in beta-toxin production between strains from the respiratory tract (5%) and skin infections (25%). delta-Toxin was produced by 53% of the strains. In each of the tested strains a complex of virulence factors was detected. The importance of inactivated extracellular products (especially alpha- and delta-toxin and in the case of skin infections also beta-toxin) as components of staphylococcal whole-cell vaccine was suggested.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Medical Faculty, Comenius University, Slovak Republic.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Slobodníková
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kotulová
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zahradníková
mesh_terms: D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000032:analysis; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003030:Coagulase / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D012008:Recurrence; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013205:Staphylococcal Protein A / Q000032:analysis; D013207:Staphylococcal Skin Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D003030:Coagulase; D013205:Staphylococcal Protein A