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KMID : 0377519950200030183
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Chung-Ang Journal of Medicine
1995 Volume.20 No. 3 p.183 ~ p.189
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Detection of mecA Gene for Methicillin ResistantStaphylococcus aureus by Polymerase Chain Reaction
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Lee Seung-Ho
Chang Eun-Ah
Kim Hye-Ryun
Lee Mi-Kyung
Park Ae-Ja
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Abstract
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Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) has been become a major nosocomial pathogen in community hospitals, longterm-care facilities and teriary care hospitals. Appropriate therapy of these infections require rapid and reliable indentification of methicillin-resistant strains. Standardized methods of susceptibility tests have been developed for this purpose. However, phenotypic expression of methicillin resistance is usually heterogeneous. In addition, methicillin resistance is influenced by culture conditions such as temperture, medium pH and NaCl content in the medium. These factors could be complicated to the detection of methicillin resistance. MRSA produce a low-affinity penicillin-binding protein(PBP 2’ or PBP 2a) in addition to the usual PBPs. The structural gene of this PBP so called as mecA, that is present in the resistant strains but not in the susceptible ones. Recently, the nucleotide sequence of this gene has been elucidated. In this study, the polymerase chain reaction(PCR) was used to detect the methicillin resistance determinant by amplifying a 535-bp region of the mecA gene. Thirty strains of MRSA and 13 strains of ASSA were isolated by the automated Vitek system. We compared the results of the disk diffusion test with the mecA gene by PCR method. The results were as follow : 1. MecA gene was detected by PCR in 26 out of 30(86.7%) strains of MRSA and not detected in all 13 strains of MSSA. 2. One of four strains of discrepancy between mecA gene(-) by PCR to Vitek system and oxacillin disk diffusion method is considered to heterogeneous expression of MRSA. In conclusion, the PCR method is useful to establish a rapid and reliable method for identifying the mecA gene in MRSA strains. Also, PCR method is suitable for a routine clinical laboratory in the epidemiologic aspects.
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KEYWORD
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MRSA, mecA gene, PCR(polymerase chain reaction)
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