Investigation of toxin gene diversity and antimicrobial resistance of Clostridium difficile strains.

The incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has been previously reported in a number of studies. However, data collected from the Chinese population is limited. In the present study, the diversity of the toxin genes, tcdA and tcdB, of 57 Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) isolates from a Chinese population were investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (38 A+B+, 14 A-B+ and 5 A-B-). Quantitative PCR was used to check the expression of these two genes and it was found that the genes were not expressed by all the strains. The absence of tcdA or tcdB expression in certain strains could be due to the lower expression of tcdD and the higher expression of tcdC, which are positive and negative regulators for these two toxin genes, respectively. In addition, the antimicrobial susceptibilities of 57 isolates were investigated. Therefore, these data would aid in the future prevention of CDI outbreaks and improve the understanding of the infection.