Infection of Hamsters with Epidemiologically Important Strains of Clostridium difficile

Five different toxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile of known human epidemiologic importance were tested for virulence in hamsters. Three strains—types B1, J9, and K14—have caused hospital outbreaks. Type Y2 is associated with a high rate of asymptomatic colonization in patients. The fifth stra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 2001-06, Vol.183 (12), p.1760-1766
Main Authors: Sambol, Susan P., Tang, Janet K., Merrigan, Michelle M., Johnson, Stuart, Gerding, Dale N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology
Bacterial Toxins - analysis
Bacterial Toxins - genetics
Bacteriology
Biological and medical sciences
Clindamycin - pharmacology
Clostridium difficile
Clostridium difficile - drug effects
Clostridium difficile - genetics
Clostridium difficile - pathogenicity
Clostridium Infections - epidemiology
Clostridium Infections - microbiology
Cricetinae
Diarrhea
Diarrhea - epidemiology
Diarrhea - microbiology
Disease Models, Animal
Disease Outbreaks
Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous - epidemiology
Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous - microbiology
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Erythromycin - pharmacology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hamsters
Human viral diseases
Infections
Infectious diseases
Inoculum
Major Articles
Medical sciences
Mesocricetus
Microbial colonization
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Microbiology
Mortality
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Restriction Mapping
Toxins
Viral diseases
Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids
Virulence
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Description
Summary:Five different toxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile of known human epidemiologic importance were tested for virulence in hamsters. Three strains—types B1, J9, and K14—have caused hospital outbreaks. Type Y2 is associated with a high rate of asymptomatic colonization in patients. The fifth strain, type CF2, is a toxin A–negative, toxin B–positive strain implicated in multiple human cases of C. difficile–associated diarrhea. Groups of 10 hamsters per strain were given 1 dose of clindamycin, followed 5 days later with gastric inoculation of 100 cfu of C. difficile. Hamsters given types B1, J9, K14, or Y2 showed 90%–100% colonization (albeit at a slower rate with type Y2) and 100% mortality of colonized animals. Hamsters challenged with type CF2 showed 60% (P=.01) colonization and 30% mortality (P=.0003). The hamster model demonstrated pathogenicity differences between a toxin variant strain and standard toxigenic strains but no significant differences among the standard strains
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1086/320736