Histochemical identification of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: contribution to preventing nosocomial infection.
Histopathological diagnosis of bacterial infection remains a technical challenge. Application of histochemistry provides a prospect of the improvement of diagnostic quality. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the most common drug-resistant bacterium, is of clinical importance in making appropriate histopathological diagnosis. Recently, community-acquired MRSA has expanded, in addition to conventional hospital-acquired MRSA. Immunohistochemical identification of MRSA requires antibodies against both species-specific antigens and penicillin-binding protein 2' (PBP2'), whereas a species-specific gene and mec A encoding PBP2' can be the target of in situ hybridization (ISH) detection. Specificity verification in histochemistry should be emphasized, since S. aureus commonly expresses protein A in the cell wall, whose immunoglobulin-binding capacity is retrieved by heating pretreatment of routinely prepared sections. The ISH technique for MRSA needs meticulous pretreatment of routine paraffin-embedded sections and signal enhancement sequence. This review focuses on such histopathological approaches, which should have profound potential for contributing to decreasing and preventing nosocomial infection of MRSA.
Shimomura
Ryoichi
R
Department of Pathology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi 470-1192, Japan. rshimo@fujita-hu.ac.jp
Tsutsumi
Yutaka
Y
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008712:Methicillin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016106:Methicillin Resistance; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D013205:Staphylococcal Protein A / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D013205:Staphylococcal Protein A; D008712:Methicillin