All issues > Volume 32(9); 1989

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1989;32(9):1210-1215. Published online September 30, 1989.

Colonization Factor Antigens of Heat-stable Enterotoxin-Producing (STf) E. Coli in Korean Children.

Kon Hee Lee¹, Kyung Hee Kim², Yang Ja Cho²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Hallyn University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Microbiology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Received: February 27, 1989;  Accepted: April 24, 1989.

Abstract

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) cause an acute cholera-like diarrhea in both human and animals. The disease process involves colonization of the mucosal surfaces of the small intestine followed by elaboration of ST and/or heat-labile enterotoxin (LT). Intestinal colonization by ETEC is mediated by specific surface-associated fimbrial or fibrillar antigens including colonization factor antigens (CFA) I and II. Isolates of E. coli from 114 children with diarrhea admitted to and 58 healthy children seen at the well baby clinic of Hanyang University Hospital in Seoul, Korea, were examinied for possesion of the CFA I and/or II with mannose-resistant^ hemagglutination and immunodiffusion assay. CFA I and CFA II expressing (CFA I+/CFA II+) E. coli were isolated from 11% and 4% of the diarrheal children, and from 2% and 2% of the healthy control (CFA I; P<0.05). CFAs were expressed only in ST+ E. coli. This finding confirms several earlier studies that CFAs are restricted to ETEC. Of the 41 ST+ strains, 20% carried the CFA I and 11% possessed the CFA II. The CFA I was restricted to E. coli serotype 025 and the CFA II was found on serotypes 025 and 020a020b. A continuous search for other attachment factors are needed to give a sound basis for a multivalent vaccine against ST-associated diarrhea.

Keywords :Colonization factor antigens