Virulence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O91:H21 clinical isolates in an orally infected mouse model.

Escherichia coli K-12 strains producing high levels of Shiga-like toxin type II (SLT-II) but not SLT-I were previously shown to be virulent in an orally infected, streptomycin-treated mouse model. In this investigation, we tested the virulence of several SLT-II-producing enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) isolates from patients with hemorrhagic colitis or hemolytic uremic syndrome. All of the strains tested were able to colonize the mouse intestine. However, only two strains were consistently virulent for mice: O91:H21 strain B2F1 (Strr), which was previously shown to carry two copies of slt-II-related toxins, and O91:H21 strain H414-36/89 (Strr), which was found in this study to contain three genes from the slt-II group. The oral 50% lethal doses of strains B2F1 (Strr) and H414-36/89 (Strr) when fed to streptomycin-treated mice were less than 10 bacteria. Histological sections from moribund mice fed the O91:H21 strains demonstrated extensive renal tubular necrosis; however, hematological results were not consistent with a diagnosis of hemolytic uremic syndrome. The central role of SLT in the virulence of the O91:H21 EHEC strains was supported by the finding that streptomycin-treated mice preinoculated with monoclonal antibody specific for SLT-II survived oral challenge with either B2F1 (Strr) or H414-36/89 (Strr). The basis for the variation in virulence among the SLT-II-producing EHEC strains tested was not determined. However, a correlation between the capacity of an EHEC strain to grow in small intestinal mucus and lethality in the streptomycin-treated mice was observed.