Clostridium Difficile
Clostridium Difficile
Hemant Sule
BIO 2110-Section 303
December 04, 2011
Clostridium Difficile is known to be a notorious infection to cause foul smelling diarrhea, very well known to almost every healthcare worker. It is one of the most difficult infections to treat in the current healthcare industry, and most often related to the use of antibiotics during healthcare treatment. Clostridium Difficile is a spore-forming, gram-positive anaerobic toxin-producing bacterium that is a “common” inhabitant of the colon flora in human infants and sometimes in adults. Clostridium Difficile contain peptidoglycan in their cell walls. As spores, rod-shaped, the bacteria look like drumsticks, with a bulge located at one end. C. Difficile produces an S layer (polysaccharide capsule) that makes it pathogenic. Five of 15 strains of Clostridium Difficile are known to possess multiple polar fimbriae, which were 4–9 nm in diameter and up to 6 μm long. There was no direct correlation between the presence or absence of fimbriae and the toxigenic status of the organism.
C. Difficile moves via peritrichous flagella. These flagella are evenly spread around the surface of each cell and which allows the bacillus to be highly motile. The bacillus are able to move by a tumbling motion and by movement in a forward direction. Nine toxigenic and six non-toxigenic strains of Clostridium Difficile, of varying virulence in a study of antibiotic-associated colitis, were examined for the presence of a capsule. All strains possessed a capsule, which was either loose-knit or compact, sometimes with attached globular masses. The possession of a capsule following in vitro growth does not appear to correlate with the virulence status of these strains of C. Difficile. The pathogenicity of C. Difficile due to spore-forming capacity. The spore form of the organism is resistant to gastric acid and can therefore readily pass through the stomach to the intestine, where it changes to a vegetative life
Hemant Sule
BIO 2110-Section 303
December 04, 2011
Clostridium Difficile is known to be a notorious infection to cause foul smelling diarrhea, very well known to almost every healthcare worker. It is one of the most difficult infections to treat in the current healthcare industry, and most often related to the use of antibiotics during healthcare treatment. Clostridium Difficile is a spore-forming, gram-positive anaerobic toxin-producing bacterium that is a “common” inhabitant of the colon flora in human infants and sometimes in adults. Clostridium Difficile contain peptidoglycan in their cell walls. As spores, rod-shaped, the bacteria look like drumsticks, with a bulge located at one end. C. Difficile produces an S layer (polysaccharide capsule) that makes it pathogenic. Five of 15 strains of Clostridium Difficile are known to possess multiple polar fimbriae, which were 4–9 nm in diameter and up to 6 μm long. There was no direct correlation between the presence or absence of fimbriae and the toxigenic status of the organism.
C. Difficile moves via peritrichous flagella. These flagella are evenly spread around the surface of each cell and which allows the bacillus to be highly motile. The bacillus are able to move by a tumbling motion and by movement in a forward direction. Nine toxigenic and six non-toxigenic strains of Clostridium Difficile, of varying virulence in a study of antibiotic-associated colitis, were examined for the presence of a capsule. All strains possessed a capsule, which was either loose-knit or compact, sometimes with attached globular masses. The possession of a capsule following in vitro growth does not appear to correlate with the virulence status of these strains of C. Difficile. The pathogenicity of C. Difficile due to spore-forming capacity. The spore form of the organism is resistant to gastric acid and can therefore readily pass through the stomach to the intestine, where it changes to a vegetative life
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