Distribution of fimh gene in local isolates of adhesive uropathogenic Escherichia coli

Abstract

Adhesion is an influential step for bacterial vigor in clinical micro-environments; type 1 fimbriae are essential virulence factors that help uropathogenic E. coli in invasion and colonization of uroepithelial cells, the first step of UTIs and biofilm formation. Type 1 fimbriae of E. coli contain FimH protein at the tip encoding via the fimH gene cluster; this study was conducted for determining the fimH gene distribution in uropathogenic E. coli isolated from UTIs patients. The results of adhesion assay show that (83.6%) of uropathogenic E. coli were high adherent isolates. While the results of E. coli fimH gene amplification prove that, for all E. coli isolates, the fimH gene was found in (87.1%), while among high adherent isolates it was found in (92.6%), and that shows the function of type 1 fimbriae in the colonization and infection of urinary tracts in addition to other adhesions virulence agents of uropathogenic E. coli.