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. 1995 Oct;33(10):2707–2709. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.10.2707-2709.1995

Association between alpha-hemolysin production and HeLa cell-detaching activity in fecal isolates of Escherichia coli.

L R Marques 1, C M Abe 1, P M Griffin 1, T A Gomes 1
PMCID: PMC228560  PMID: 8567910

Abstract

Escherichia coli isolates that cause detachment of cell monolayers during in vitro adherence assays (cell-detaching E. coli [CDEC]) were recently reported as a potential new group of enteropathogenic bacteria. In the present study, 269 E. coli isolates from feces of children 1 to 5 years of age were identified as CDEC in a detaching assay developed with HeLa cells. The great majority of these isolates were hemolytic within 3 h of growth on blood agar plates and hybridized with a DNA probe for alpha-hemolysin (93.7%), while most of the non-detaching isolates were hemolytic within 24 h (3.6%) or nonhemolytic (94.8%). E. coli isolates that produced alpha-hemolysin were found in 60 (30%) of 200 children with diarrhea and 47 (24%) of 200 age-matched controls. No statistical significance was found for the differences in alpha-hemolysin production among the matched pairs (P = 0.2). These data suggest that CDEC isolates are not associated with diarrhea in the population studied.

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Selected References

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