Phenotypic and Genomic Variation among Staphylococcus epidermidis Strains Infecting Joint Prostheses

JO Galdbart, A Morvan, N Desplaces… - Journal of clinical …, 1999 - Am Soc Microbiol
JO Galdbart, A Morvan, N Desplaces, N el Solh
Journal of clinical microbiology, 1999Am Soc Microbiol
We studied the Sma I and Sst II macrorestriction patterns of 54 Staphylococcus epidermidis
strains isolated from 14 patients infected following the implantation of joint prostheses.
Multiple strains from pus and infected tissue specimens of each patient were selected on the
basis of different colony morphologies and drug resistance patterns. The same criteria were
used to select 23 S. epidermidis strains from hand swabs of eight healthy individuals. For 10
of the 14 patients, all the intrapatient strains appeared to be closely or possibly related …
Abstract
We studied the SmaI and SstII macrorestriction patterns of 54 Staphylococcus epidermidisstrains isolated from 14 patients infected following the implantation of joint prostheses. Multiple strains from pus and infected tissue specimens of each patient were selected on the basis of different colony morphologies and drug resistance patterns. The same criteria were used to select 23 S. epidermidis strains from hand swabs of eight healthy individuals. For 10 of the 14 patients, all the intrapatient strains appeared to be closely or possibly related, whereas related strains were detected in the skin flora of only one of the eight healthy individuals. This observation suggests that, in most cases, the patients were infected by a single S. epidermidis clone which subsequently underwent rearrangements that yielded derivatives with divergent phenotypes and, occasionally, divergent macrorestriction patterns. The four patients whose specimens contained unrelated S. epidermidisstrains were probably infected with several polyclonal strains.
American Society for Microbiology