title: Occurrence of the Fimbria Gene hifA in clinical isolates of nonencapsulated Haemophilus influenzae.
abstract: The adherence of Haemophilus influenzae to epithelial cells plays a crucial role in infections. However, little is known about the occurrence of fimbriae. In this study, we examined the distribution of the fimbria gene (hifA) by PCR among 167 H. influenzae strains isolated from patients with respiratory infections. Almost all (163; 98%) of the isolates were nonencapsulated strains. The carriage rate of hifA by the nonencapsulated strains was 18.4%. Electron microscopy showed that fimbriae were abundantly present on the cell surface of hifA-positive strains tested. Only four (2.4%) isolates were encapsulated, all of which were type b and did not possess hifA. The present work suggests that fimbriae may play a considerable role as adhesins in nonencapsulated H. influenzae strains.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Division of Health Sciences, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asaka
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kirita
authors.forename: Hatsumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Yasuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Senda
authors.forename: Shin-Ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Kishichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Tadahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karasawa
authors.forename: Ei
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kawahara
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimura
authors.forename: Takayoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamagishi
mesh_terms: D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D006192:Haemophilus Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D006193:Haemophilus influenzae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008854:Microscopy, Electron
chemical_list: D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial; C090992:HifA protein, Haemophilus influenzae; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins