Korean J Urol.  2003 Aug;44(8):785-790.

Isolation and Purification of the Oxalate-Degrading Bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes in Human Feces

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Urology, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Clinical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea. hhkim@snu.ac.kr
  • 2Department of Clinical Pathology, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Clinical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
  • 3Department of Microbiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Clinical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE: The absence of the oxalate-degrading bacteria, Oxalobacter formigenes, in the gastrointestinal tract correlates with the formation of calcium-oxalate urolithiasis. The aim of this study was to isolate Oxalobacter from human feces.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The OxB strain, isolated from sheep rumen, was incubated in selective growth media(medium B) in an anaerobic chamber, and its microbiological properties evaluated. Feces from volunteers, who were presumed to have O. formigenes from a polymerase chain reaction-based detection system, was incubated in medium B. The colonies isolated, primarily 7 days after incubation, were successively subcultured, and colony-PCR performed to isolate colonies from the successive subcultures.
RESULTS
The colonies of OxB were Gram-negative, non-motile, non-spore forming, rod-shaped cells. The cells were often in pairs or chains. OxB DNA gave rise to an amplicon of the correct molecular size(416 bp) of O. formigenes. The morphology of the colonies from human feces, of which DNA was confirmed to have the same size amplicon of O. formigenes by PCR, was identical to the OxB, both grossly and by Gram stain. Although the morphology of the colonies isolated from the successive subcultures was no different from that of OxB, the PCR positivity of the isolated colonies decreased on successive subculturing, with no PCR-positive colonies from the fifth subculture.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that the microbiological isolation and purification of Oxalobacter formigenes from human feces is a difficult procedure. Special culture conditions will be required to culture Oxalobacter species to reveal the link between O. formigenes and calcium oxalate urolithiasis in humans.

Keyword

Kidney calculi; Oxalobacter formigenes; Isolation & Purification

MeSH Terms

Bacteria
Calcium Oxalate
DNA
Feces*
Gastrointestinal Tract
Humans*
Kidney Calculi
Oxalobacter formigenes*
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Rumen
Sheep
Urolithiasis
Volunteers
Calcium Oxalate
DNA
Full Text Links
  • KJU
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr