title: Intrafamilial, Preferentially Mother-to-Child and Intraspousal, Helicobacter pylori Infection in Japan Determined by Mutilocus Sequence Typing and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Fingerprinting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The infection route of Helicobacter pylori has been recognized to be mainly intrafamilial, preferentially mother-to-child, especially in developed countries. To determine the transmission route, we examined whether multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was useful for analysis of intrafamilial infection. The possibility of intraspousal infection was also evaluated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clonal relationships between strains derived from 35 index Japanese pediatric patients, and their family members were analyzed by two genetic typing procedures, MLST and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprinting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mostly coincident results were obtained by MLST and RAPD. By MLST, the allele of loci in the isolates mostly matched between the index child and both the father and mother for 9 (25.7%) of the 35 patients, between the index child and the mother for 25 (60.0%) of the 35 patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MLST is useful for analyzing the infection route of H. pylori as a highly reproducible method. Intrafamilial, especially mother-to-children and sibling, infection is the dominant transmission route. Intraspousal infection is also thought to occur in about a quarter in the Japanese families.
authors: Department of Microbiology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Shin-ichi
authors: S
authors: Yokota
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Kosei General Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Mutsuko
authors: M
authors: Konno
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Kosei General Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Shin-ichi
authors: S
authors: Fujiwara
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Kosei General Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Nariaki
authors: N
authors: Toita
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Kosei General Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Michiko
authors: M
authors: Takahashi
authors: Department of Microbiology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Soh
authors: S
authors: Yamamoto
authors: Department of Microbiology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.|Department of Otolaryngology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Noriko
authors: N
authors: Ogasawara
authors: Department of Microbiology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors: Tsukasa
authors: T
authors: Shiraishi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing
keywords: Helicobacter pylori; Intrafamilial infection; intraspousal infection; multilocus sequence typing; random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting