title: Clonal similarity of salivary and nasopharyngeal Fusobacterium nucleatum in infants with acute otitis media experience.
abstract: The environment of an infant's nasopharynx during acute otitis media (AOM) favours the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which can be recovered frequently during infection, but hardly at all if the infant is healthy. The aim of this investigation was to identify the potential source and inoculation route of anaerobes that were present in the nasopharynx. Eleven Fusobacterium nucleatum isolates that were collected through the nasal cavity from the nasopharynx of eight infants with a history of AOM, and 161 F. nucleatum isolates from the saliva of the same infants, were typed to the clonal level by using arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR). In five of the eight infants examined, identical AP-PCR types were found among nasopharyngeal and salivary isolates. As anaerobes seem to be present only transiently in the nasopharynx and salivary contamination of the nasopharyngeal samples can be excluded, this observation indicates that the source of nasopharyngeal anaerobes is the oral cavity and that saliva is their transmission vehicle.
authors.affiliation: Anaerobe Reference Laboratory, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Mannerheimintie 166, FIN-00300, Helsinki, Finland 2Faculty of Odontology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland 3Faculty of Dentistry, Kuwait University, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Gunnsteinn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Haraldsson
authors.affiliation: Anaerobe Reference Laboratory, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Mannerheimintie 166, FIN-00300, Helsinki, Finland 2Faculty of Odontology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland 3Faculty of Dentistry, Kuwait University, Kuwait.
authors.forename: W Peter
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Holbrook
authors.affiliation: Anaerobe Reference Laboratory, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Mannerheimintie 166, FIN-00300, Helsinki, Finland 2Faculty of Odontology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland 3Faculty of Dentistry, Kuwait University, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Eija
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Könönen
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D005674:Fusobacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D016967:Fusobacterium nucleatum / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012463:Saliva / Q000382:microbiology*