Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, August 2000, p. 2182-2184, Vol. 44, No. 8
Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital
Ramón y Cajal, Madrid 28034, Spain
Received 22 October 1999/Returned for modification 27 February
2000/Accepted 21 April 2000
Despite the large number of in vitro mutations that increase
resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins in TEM-type
0066-4804/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Selection of Naturally Occurring Extended-Spectrum
TEM
-Lactamase Variants by Fluctuating
-Lactam
Pressure
-lactamases, only a small number occur in naturally occurring
enzymes. In nature, and particularly in the hospital, bacteria that
contain
-lactamases encounter simultaneous or consecutive selective
pressure with different
-lactam molecules. All variants obtained by
submitting an Escherichia coli strain that contains a
blaTEM-1 gene to fluctuating challenge with
both ceftazidime and amoxicillin contained only mutations previously
detected in naturally occurring
-lactamases. Nevertheless, some
variants obtained by ceftazidime challenge alone contained mutations
never detected in naturally occurring TEM
-lactamases, suggesting
that extended-spectrum TEM variants in hospital isolates result from
fluctuating selective pressure with several
-lactams rather than
selection with a single antibiotic.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Servicio de
Microbiología, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Carretera de
Colmenar Km 9.100, Madrid 28034, Spain. Phone: (34)-91-336 83 30. Fax:
(34)-91-336 88 09. E-mail: jblazquez{at}hrc.insalud.es.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»