Abstract

Hafnia alvei, a probable cause of diarrhea in humans. M J Albert , K Alam , M Islam , J Montanaro , A S Rahaman , K Haider , M A Hossain , A K Kibriya and S Tzipori International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka. ABSTRACT Hafnia alvei, a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae, was the only species of bacteria cultured from the stool of a 9-month-old child who was admitted with a 3-day history of watery diarrhea. The isolated strain of H. alvei failed to produce heat-labile or heat-stable enterotoxins or Shiga-like toxin I or II and did not invade HeLa cells, nor did it cause keratoconjunctivitis (determined by the Sereny test) in a guinea pig's eye. The strain, however, induced diarrhea in 8 of 12 adult rabbits with removable intestinal ties (removable intestinal tie-adult rabbit diarrhea (RITARD) assay) and in 1 of 2 orally fed animals. No diarrhea could be induced with Escherichia coli K-12 in eight RITARD assay rabbits and three orally fed rabbits, respectively. Microscopic examination of affected animals revealed moderate inflammatory cellular infiltration of the intestinal mucosa, in which bacterial attachment to the surface epithelium and loss of the microvillus border were evident in the ileum and colon. Electron microscopy demonstrated cellular modifications of the apical surface, with cupping or pedestal formation and increased terminal web density at sites of bacterial "attachment-effacement," a well-known characteristic and mechanism of diarrhea of enteropathogenic E. coli. Identical lesions were also induced by H. alvei in rabbit ileal loops, which ruled out naturally occurring rabbit enteropathogenic E. coli strains, which are known to produce similar lesions. It is concluded that at least some strains of H. alvei have the potential to cause diarrhea and that attachment-effacement is a virulence characteristic shared by bacteria other than E. coli. CiteULike Connotea Delicious Digg Facebook Google+ Mendeley Reddit StumbleUpon Twitter What's this? « Previous | Next Article » Table of Contents This Article Infect. Immun. April 1991 vol. 59 no. 4 1507-1513 » Abstract PDF Classifications Research Article Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in ASM journals Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of IAI Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Load citing article information Citing articles via Web of Science Citing articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Albert, M. J. Articles by Tzipori, S. Search for related content PubMed PubMed citation Articles by Albert, M. J. Articles by Tzipori, S. Related Content Load related web page information Social Bookmarking CiteULike Connotea Delicious Digg Facebook Google+ Mendeley Reddit StumbleUpon Twitter What's this? current issue December 2011, volume 79, issue 12 Spotlights in the Current Issue Face-to-Face: Mapping Host-Pathogen Interactions Chronological Aging Affects Virulence Factor Expression Toll-like Receptor 9 Modulates Macrophage Antifungal Effector Function during Innate Recognition of Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Specific Fimbrial Profiles in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Predict Virulence Alert me to new issues of IAI About IAI Subscribers Authors Reviewers Advertisers Inquiries from the Press Permissions & Commercial Reprints ASM Journals Public Access Policy IAI RSS Feeds 1752 N Street N.W. • Washington DC 20036 202.737.3600 • 202.942.9355 fax • journals@asmusa.org Print ISSN: 0019-9567 Online ISSN: 1098-5522 Copyright © 2011 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to IAI .asm.org, visit: http://intl- IAI .asm.org | More Info» var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5821458-8"); pageTracker._trackPageview();