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Genetic diversity and persistent colonization of Enterococcus faecalis on ocular surfaces

  • Clinical Investigation
  • Published:
Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Enterococcus faecalis causes severe acute endophthalmitis and often leads to poor visual outcomes. Conjunctival bacterial cultures occasionally grow atypical bacteria including E. faecalis, which can potentially contribute to the development of postoperative endophthalmitis. However, the characteristics of these ocular E. faecalis strains are unknown. This study is the first attempt to determine the population characteristics of E. faecalis clinical isolates from eye infections and ocular commensals.

Study design

Retrospective

Methods

Twenty-eight E. faecalis ocular isolates were collected from 23 patients at 3 referring hospitals. The multilocus sequence typing (MLST) data were analyzed using the eBURST program. Phenotypes of cytolysin and gelatinase, antibiotic susceptibility, and mutations of the quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDRs) of gyrA and parC were also examined. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed for strains from the same patients.

Results

PFGE revealed that 3 patients retained identical strains for 10 months to 2 and a half years. MLST identified 12 sequence types (STs), which were clustered into 3 clonal complexes (CCs) and 8 singletons, with ST179 the largest. Thirteen of the 23 isolates (56.5%) belonged to CC58, CC8, or CC2, which have previously been reported to be major CCs. Six of the 23 strains (26.0%) exhibited high-level quinolone resistance derived from mutations of the QRDRs in both gyrA and parC.

Conclusions

The sequence types of E. faecalis ocular isolates were divergent, with no eye-specific lineages observed. Persistent colonization of E. faecalis on the ocular surface was demonstrated in patients with chronic ocular surface diseases.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Saichi Hoshi, Tomoyuki Inoue, Ryohei Nejima, and Takaaki Hattori for their helpful discussions regarding this study.

Funding

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma, 371-8511, Japan

    Daisuke Todokoro & Hideo Akiyama

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroshi Eguchi

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan

    Takashi Suzuki

  4. Department of Molecular Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kita-gun, Japan

    Motoo Suzuki, Haruyuki Nakayama-Imaohji & Tomomi Kuwahara

  5. Department of Bacteriology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan

    Takahiro Nomura & Haruyoshi Tomita

  6. Laboratory of Bacterial Drug Resistance, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan

    Haruyoshi Tomita

Authors
  1. Daisuke Todokoro
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  2. Hiroshi Eguchi
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  3. Takashi Suzuki
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  4. Motoo Suzuki
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  7. Takahiro Nomura
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  9. Hideo Akiyama
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daisuke Todokoro.

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Conflicts of interest

D. Todokoro, None; H. Eguchi, None; T. Suzuki, None; M. Suzuki, None; H. N. -Imaohji, None; T. Kuwahara, None; T. Nomura, None; H. Tomita, None; H. Akiyama, None.

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Corresponding author: Daisuke Todokoro

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Todokoro, D., Eguchi, H., Suzuki, T. et al. Genetic diversity and persistent colonization of Enterococcus faecalis on ocular surfaces. Jpn J Ophthalmol 62, 699–705 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-018-0630-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-018-0630-5

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