The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 21, Issue 3 225-231, Copyright © 1986 by Society for General Microbiology
Adherence of multiresistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae to cerebrospinal fluid shunts: correlation with plasmid content
C. D. Denoya, A. R. Trevisan and J. Zorzopulos
A nosocomial multiresistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain (KMD01) isolated
from a patient with an infected ventriculoperitoneal (V-P) shunt was found
to contain three plasmids of mol. wts (10(6)) c. 85, 50 and 2.4. A
derivative isogenic strain (KMD11) carrying only the plasmids of mol. wts
(10(6)) 50 and 2.4 was obtained spontaneously by plating the parent strain.
The absence of the plasmid of mol. wt 85 X 10(6) in strain KMD11 correlated
with an increased adherence to V-P catheters and glass surfaces, as well as
autoagglutination in minimal medium. Bacterial cells containing the whole
set of plasmids (strain KMD01) also showed the incorporation into the outer
membrane of a new polypeptide (mol. wt, c. 41 X 10(3)), when grown in
minimal medium. The presence of this polypeptide correlated with absence of
autoagglutination, as shown by strain KMD01 under these cultural
conditions. These data suggest that the cell-surface characteristics in K.
pneumoniae may be affected by the plasmid content of the strain. Since
nosocomial strains of K. pneumoniae usually contain one or more plasmids,
and strains easily exchange these extrachromosomal elements, it seems
reasonable to speculate that new variants with higher V-P shunt
colonisation effectiveness, like the one described in this work, may also
evolve in nature.
