Use of mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable-number tandem repeat typing to study Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from East Azarbaijan province of Iran.

The aim of present study was to determine the genotypes of isolates from East Azarbaijan province by this method. We performed (MIRU-VNTR) analysis of strains, isolated from 127 patients during a period of September 2002 to March 2003 in tuberculosis centers of the province. Among 127 isolates, we found 93 distinct MIRU-VNTR patterns, including in 21 clustered patterns and 72 unique patterns from isolated strains. The discriminatory power of MIRU-VNTR typing in present study was high (HGDI = 0.9932) for isolates. In clusters similar patterns of Nakhichevanees patients and Iranian patients was revealed in three clusters which showed Nakhichevanees patients referred to tuberculosis centers of province could be a source for transmission of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis in this province is relatively in good condition. The allelic diversity of our samples was lower than previous studies. These results indicate that MIRU-VNTR can be a useful and first line tool for studying genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis isolates in regional setting such as East Azarbaijan province of Iran.