Persistence survey of Toxic Shock Syndrome toxin-1 producing Staphylococcus aureusand serum antibodies to this superantigen in five groups of menstruating women

BMC Infectious Diseases

Research Article

Mary L Delaney¹  Andrea M DuBois¹  Andrew B Onderdonk¹  Jeffrey Parsonnet²  Paul A Modern²  John E Wild³  Michaelle B Jones⁴  Jon L Seymour⁴  Melanie A Hansmann⁴ 

[1] Channing Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Ave, Boston, Massachusetts, USA;Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA;Hill Top Research Inc, Main & Mill St, Miamiville, Ohio, USA;The Procter & Gamble Company, 6010 Center Hill Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA;

关键词: Antibody Titer;    Toxic Shock Syndrome;    Nasal Carriage;    Toxigenic Strain;    Mannitol Salt Agar;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2334-10-249

 received in 2009-08-24, accepted in 2010-08-23,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMenstrual Toxic Shock Syndrome (mTSS) is thought to be associated with the vaginal colonization with specific strains of Staphylococcus aureus TSST-1 in women who lack sufficient antibody titers to this toxin. There are no published studies that examine the seroconversion in women with various colonization patterns of this organism. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the persistence of Staphylococcus aureus colonization at three body sites (vagina, nares, and anus) and serum antibody to toxic shock syndrome toxin-producing Staphylococcus aureus among a small group of healthy, menstruating women evaluated previously in a larger study.MethodsOne year after the completion of that study, 311 subjects were recalled into 5 groups. Four samples were obtained from each participant at several visits over an additional 6-11 month period: 1) an anterior nares swab; 2) an anal swab; 3) a vagina swab; and 4) a blood sample. Gram stain, a catalase test, and a rapid S. aureus-specific latex agglutination test were performed to phenotypically identify S. aureus from sample swabs. A competitive ELISA was used to quantify TSST-1 production. Human TSST-1 IgG antibodies were determined from the blood samples using a sandwich ELISA method.ResultsWe found only 41% of toxigenic S. aureus and 35.5% of non-toxigenic nasal carriage could be classified as persistent. None of the toxigenic S. aureus vaginal or anal carriage could be classified as persistent. Despite the low persistence of S. aureus colonization, subjects colonized with a toxigenic strain were found to display distributions of antibody titers skewed toward higher titers than other subjects. Seven percent (5/75) of subjects became seropositive during recall, but none experienced toxic shock syndrome-like symptoms.ConclusionsNasal carriage of S. aureus appears to be persistent and the best predicator of subsequent colonization, whereas vaginal and anal carriage appear to be more transient. From these findings, it appears that antibody titers in women found to be colonized with toxigenic S. aureus remained skewed toward higher titers whether or not the colonies were found to be persistent or transient in nature. This suggests that colonization at some point in time is sufficient to elevate antibody titer levels and those levels appear to be persistent. Results also indicate that women can become seropositive without experiencing signs or symptoms of toxic shock syndrome.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Parsonnet et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.