Attention has recently been paid to identify and elucidate those pathogenetic mechanisms, which play a significant role in sustaining the early phases of Staphylococcus epidermidis colonisation and infection development. Several analogies with the physiology of Staphylococcus aureus, a more thoroughly investigated pathogen, have lead to carefully consider all bacterial surface components that mediate cell adhesion. This study aimed at investigating the presence of the fbe gene encoding for a fibrinogen-binding protein in a collection of 107 S. epidermidis strains isolated from orthopaedic infections and 67 from central venous catheter-associated infections. The strains isolated from orthopaedic infections were in large part associated to four different classes of orthopaedic devices, respectively: internal fixation devices. external fixation devices, knee arthroprostheses and hip arthroprostheses. The molecular epidemiology analysis performed by PCR enlightened a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of this adhesion mechanism between orthopaedic infections and catheter-related infections, respectively. of 78% and 91%. The prevalence of fbe ranged from 67% to 91%. suggesting that. even though this adhesin is not strictly necessary for the development of infection, nevertheless it represents a rather common characteristic of strains causing clinical infections, this independently on the presence or the absence of implant materials. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
