The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 39, Issue 5 352-362, Copyright © 1993 by Society for General Microbiology
Biologically active extracellular products of oral viridans streptococci and the aetiology of Kawasaki disease
H. Ohkuni, Y. Todome, M. Mizuse, N. Ohtani, H. Suzuki, H. Igarashi, Y. Hashimoto, T. Ezaki, K. Harada, Y. Imada and al. et
Division of Immunology, Nippon Medical School, Kanagawa, Japan.
A bacteriological study of isolates from the oral cavity of patients with
Kawasaki disease (KD), age-matched non-KD patients and healthy children,
showed that over half the KD and control isolates had gram-positive,
catalase-negative cocci. About 50% of these organisms were identified as
viridans streptococci by means of an API Strep 20 kit. Further
identification by fluorometric DNA-DNA hybridisation demonstrated that the
predominant species were S. oralis and S. mitis, each of which accounted
for 25% of the isolates of viridans streptococci; 40% of viridans strains
were unidentifiable; and S. sanguis and S. parasanguis were minor
components. Studies in vivo showed that insertion of culture supernates of
most of the viridans streptococci increased capillary permeability and
induced redness with swelling and occasional bleeding in rabbit skin.
One-third of S. mitis strains and one-fifth of the unidentified strains
caused aggregation of human blood platelets, whereas S. oralis and other
strains had no such effect. The distribution of extracellular lipoteichoic
acids and glucan produced in the presence of sucrose was also examined.
There were no significant differences in the recovery rate of viridans
streptococci forming these biologically active extracellular products
between KD and control groups.
