title: The throat flora and its mitogenic activity in patients with Kawasaki disease.
abstract: The etiology of Kawasaki disease (KD) remains unknown, although some infectious organism has been suggested as the cause. Recent studies suggest that some bacterial toxins with superantigen activity are involved in its pathogenesis, but no specific bacterial toxin has yet been identified. Throat swabs for bacterial culture were obtained from 21 patients with KD and 20 with other febrile illnesses as controls. Mitogenic activity in culture supernatants obtained from individual bacterial strains was measured by lymphocyte proliferation assay. Sixty-one bacterial strains were isolated from KD patients, and 62 strains from control patients. There was no apparent difference in bacterial species in the throat flora between KD patients and febrile controls. Moreover, total and individual mitogenic activity of strains from KD patients was no greater than that of strains from febrile controls. The bacterial superantigen activity of throat flora may not play a major role in the pathogenesis of KD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, USA. nhori@sapmed.ac.jp
authors.forename: Norihisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Horita
authors.forename: Shin-Ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yokota
authors.forename: Shigeto
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fuse
authors.forename: Motoki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takamuro
authors.forename: Hideshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsutsumi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D009080:Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D018089:Superantigens / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D018089:Superantigens