| Research Abstract |
We investigated the distribution of the staphylococcal superantigen genes. among Kawasaki Disease(KD)patients and age-matched control children. Rectal and throat swabs were obtained from 175 KD patients and throat swabs were obtained from 75 age-matched control children. The presence of S.aureus was determined by isolating the organism or by PCR of the coagulase and/or the protein A genes. The five prototypic enterotoxins(sea, b, c, d, e)as well as the three recently characterized enterotoxins(seg, h, i)and the tsst-1 genes were amplified by PCR using the toxinspecific oligomer pairs.
S.aureus was isolated from 32.0%, 20.7% of the throat/rectal swabs from KD, which was significantly higher than in controls(16.0%, p=0.009). By using PCR, the coagulase/protein A genes were amplified from 49.1%, 42.6% of the throat, rectal swabs from KD and 46.7% of the throat swabs from controls, respectively. The 7 enterotoxins(sea, b, c, dg, h, i)and the tsst-1 genes were detected from the throat and the rectal swabs with the comparable frequencies. However, the seb(13% vs 4%, p=0.04)and the sec(14% vs 4%, p=0.02)genes were detected more frequently from the throat swabs among KD patients than controls. These results indicate that S.aureus which produces the prototypic superantigens colonizes on the throat and/or rectal mucosa of KD patients more heavily than controls. The colonization of the superantigen-producing S.aureus may predispose the young children, who may lack the protective antibodies against the prototypic superantigens, to develop symptoms of KD.
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