Adhesive properties of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli isolated from infants with acute diarrhea in Africa.

The adhesive properties of 69 enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains were studied. The strains were isolated from diarrheal stools of infants in Burundi, Africa, and identified by serotyping with 12 classical EPEC O serogroup antisera. A test for adhesion to HEp-2 cells revealed that 52% of the strains showed localized adherence and 13% diffuse adherence. Localized adherence phenotype was found in previously described serogroups O86, O111, O125, O127, O128 and O142; strains belonging to another serogroup, O126, also exhibited localized adherence. Use of an EPEC adherence factor DNA probe in colony hybridization and in Southern blot techniques revealed that all strains exhibiting localized adherence and no strain exhibiting diffuse adherence produced a positive reaction; the genes were localized on high molecular weight plasmids (50-70 megadaltons). In vitro adhesion tests with human enterocytes performed concurrently with all 69 strains showed that only six of them adhered. These strains belonged to the O26, O117, O125, O128 and O142 serogroups. The adhesin CFA/I was detected only in the O128 Escherichia coli. The strain of serogroup O142 exhibited both adhesion to human enterocytes and localized adherence to HEp-2 cells, which suggests that the adhesive systems of enterotoxigenic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli may coexist.