• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.481-485
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• 1986

Six strains of Bacteroides fragilis group were isolated from clinical specimens, and these isolates were classified by the resistance to bile and kanamycin, and by catalase and indole reaction. Of 6 strains, 4 strains were belonged to B. fragilis and 2 were B. uniformis. Among 6 strains, only 2 of B. fragilis harbored plasmids. But these plasmid showed no correlation with phenotypic expression. There were some differences in susceptibility to 23 ${\beta}$-lactam antibiotics, also, marked susceptibility differences were found between 2 species, so these results may be contributed to the treatment of infection due to this micro-organism and the identification of these species.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.368-377
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• 2020

Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) is the main pathogen causing severe inflammatory diseases and colorectal cancer. Its biofilm plays a key role in the development of colorectal cancer. The objective of this study was to determine the antagonistic effects of cell-free supernatants (CFS) derived from Clostridium butyricum against the growth and biofilm of ETBF. Our data showed that C. butyricum CFS inhibited the growth of B. fragilis in planktonic culture. In addition, C. butyricum CFS exhibited an antibiofilm effect by inhibiting biofilm development, disassembling preformed biofilms and reducing the metabolic activity of cells in biofilms. Using confocal laser scanning microscopy, we found that C. butyricum CFS significantly suppressed the proteins and extracellular nucleic acids among the basic biofilm components. Furthermore, C. butyricum CFS significantly downregulated the expression of virulence- and efflux pump-related genes including ompA and bmeB3 in B. fragilis. Our findings suggest that C. butyricum can be used as biotherapeutic agent by inhibiting the growth and biofilm of ETBF.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 1993

The intestinal microflora of humans is an extraordinarily complex mixture of microorganisms, the majority of which are anaerobic bacteria. Amongst them, most prevalent bacteria are Bacteroides, Eubacterium, Peptococcus, Bifidobacteria. We isolated a Bacteroides fragilis strain from a Korean adult and examined various glycosidase activities of this strain. The activities of $N-acetyl-{\beta}-glucosaminidase,\;{\alpha}-fucosidase$, ${\beta}-glucuronidase$, chitobiase and PNPCase were stronger in Bacteroides fragilis Roid 8 than in other intestinal anaerobic bacteria. $N-acetyl-{\beta}-glucosaminidase$ was strongest, followed by ${\alpha}-fucosidase$, ${\beta}-glucuronidase$ and PNPCase. The activities of ${\beta}-galactosidase$, ${\beta}-xylosidase,\;{\alpha}-arabinofuranosidase$ were not present or very low. The activities of ${\alpha}-glucosidase$, ${\beta}-glucosidase$ and ${\alpha}-galactosidase$ were present but at a lower level than in Bifidobacterium. The effect of the carbon sources on the production of $N-acetyl-{\beta}-glucosaminidase$, ${\alpha}-fucosidase$, ${\beta}-glucuronidase$ and PNPCase of Bacteroides fragilis Roid 8 was investigated. :.actose and glucose lowered the production of the varous glycosidase enzymes studied in this work. In addition, we investigated the optimum temperature and pH of each glycosidase from Bacteroides fragilis Roid-8 using crude enzyme preparations.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.161-167
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• 2015

These commensal intestinal bacteria can enhance the immune system and aid in nutrient absorption but can also act as opportunistic pathogens. Among these intestinal bacteria, the anaerobic Bacteroides fragilis are divided into enterotoxigenic B. fragilis (ETBF) which secrete the B. fragilis toxin (BFT) and non-enterotoxigenic B. fragilis (NTBF) which do not secrete BFT. ETBF can cause diarrhea and colitis in both humans and livestock but can also be found in asymptomatic individuals. ETBF is predominantly found in patients with inflammatory diarrheal diseases and traveller's diarrhea. Several clinical studies have also reported an increased prevalence of ETBF in human patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colitis and colorectal cancer. In small animal models (C57BL/6 wild-type mice, germ-free mice, multiple intestinal neoplasia (Min) mice, rabbits and Mongolian gerbils), ETBF have been found to initiate and/or aggravate IBD, colitis and colorectal cancer. BFT induces E-cadherin cleavage in intestinal epithelial cells resulting in loss of epithelial cell integrity. Subsequent activation of the ${\beta}$-catenin pathway leads to increased cellular proliferation. In addition, ETBF causes acute and chronic colitis in wild-type mice as well as enhances tumorigenesis in Min mice via activation of the Stat3/Th17 pathway. Currently, ETBF can be detected using a BFT toxin bioassay and by PCR. Advances in molecular biological techniques such as real-time PCR have allowed both researchers as well as clinicians to rapidly detect ETBF in clinical samples. The emergence of more sensitive techniques will likely advance molecular insight into the role of ETBF in colitis and cancer.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2000

Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli, normal colonic inhabitants, are the most frequently isolated bacteria in infected tissues, particularly in intraabdominal abscesses. This study was designed to determine whether enteric bacteria may alter the B. fragilis-induced expression of pro inflammatory cytokines in mouse peritoneal tissue (MPT). After C57BL/6 mice were inoculated with abscess-forming mixture containing B. fragilis in the presence or absence of E. coli, RNA was extracted from MPT. Expression of interleukin (IL)-$1{\alpha}$ and tumor necrosis factor $(TNF){\alpha}$ mRNA was assessed using RT-PCR and standard RNA. Each cytokine protein was also measured by ELISA. The co-inoculation of E. coli into mouse peritoneal cavity advanced the onset of abscess development by B. fragilis infection. When mouse was co-infected with E. coli and B. fragilis intraperitoneally, there was a synergistic increase in the expression of IL-$1{\alpha}$ and $TNF{\alpha}$ mRNA in MPT and this was paralleled by increased cytokine protein secretion. Mixed inoculation of heat-killed E. coli and B. fragilis did not cause a synergistic increase in those cytokine mRNA expression. These results suggest that enteric bacteria may significantly affect proinflammatory cytokine signal produced by host peritoneal cavity in response to B. fragilis infection.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.275-279
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• 2018

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing in prevalence in developed countries but the cause of this increase is unclear. In animal models of IBD and in human IBD patients, alterations in the tight junctional proteins have been observed, suggesting that the intestinal microflora may penetrate the underlying colonic tissue and promote inflammation. Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) causes inflammatory diarrhea in human and is implicated in inflammatory bowel diseases. However, it is unclear whether alterations in tight junctional proteins occur during ETBF infection in mice. In this brief communication, we report that ETBF infection induces up-regulation of claudin-2 and down-regulation of claudin-5 through B. fragilis toxin (BFT) activity in the large intestine of C57BL/6 mice. In contrast, BFT did not induce changes in tight junctional proteins in the HT29/C1 cell line, suggesting that analysis of biological activity of BFT in vivo is important for evaluating ETBF effects.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.135-143
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• 1993

The susceptibilities of 45 clinical isolates of bacteroides frogilis to cefaclor, ciproflxacin and imipenem were determined by new method, E-test (AB Bidisk, Solna, Sweden) and were compared with those from conventional agar dilution method by using brain heart infusion, Mueller-Hinton and Wilkins Chalgren agar plates. And the susceptibility of 60 clinical isolates of Bacteroides fragilis group (B. fragilis 45 strains, B. distasonis 6 strains, B. ovatus 5 strains, B. thetaiotaomicron 4 strains) to 5 quinolones (ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, pefloxacin) were determined by in vitro agar dilution method. Compared with agar dilution MICs for B. fragilis 45 strains, 90.3% of E-test MICs were within ${\pm}$1 dilution of the agar dilutions, and 98.4% were within 2 dilutions. And there were little effect of different medium bases to determine MICs except Mueller-Hinton agar. On Mueller-Hinton agar, B. fragilis showed have or no growth activity. In vitro susceptibility of B. fragjlis group to quinolones, most of the test strains showed resistant patterns to quinolones except ofloxacin and there was little difference of susceptibility patterns between species of B. fragilis group.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.5 s.94
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• pp.355-358
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• 2005

Bacteroides is the most predominant bacteria in the human large intestinal tract. Bacteroides fragilis RoidB isolated from a Korean faecal sample showed high $\alpha-fucosidase$ activity compared to other bacterial species. The optimized meidum for the production of $\alpha-fucosidase$ from 8. fragilis contained BHI 37g, hemin 10mg, cysteine 0.5g, resazurin 1mg, vitamin K1mg, and starch 5g per 1 L. The crude $\alpha-fucosidase$ obtained through DEAE-sepharose and CM- cellulose chromatography showed optimum temperature and pH at $40^{\circ}C$ and 7.0, respectively. Among several metals, $Co^{++}\;and\;Zn^{++}$ showed strong inhibition on enzyme activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.86-90
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• 2000

We have earlier reported on the cloning and identification of bft-k from an enterotoxigenic strain of Bacteroides fragilis 419, which was isolated from the blood of a Korean patient who suffered from systemic infections [4,5]. The bft-k gene encodes a 397-amino-acids metalloprotease enterotoxin, and the protein has been identified as a new isoform of B. fragilis enterotoxins (BFTs), which are cytopathic to intestinal epithelial cells to induce fluid secretion and tissue damage in ligated intestinal loops [4, 6, 18, 20]. This report describes the cloning and sequencing of the enterotoxin pahogenicity islet of B. fragilis 419 which contains the bft-k gene. the cloned enterotoxin pathogenicity islet was found to have 6,045 bp in length and to contain 120bp direct repeats near its end. In the pathogenicity islet, in addition to the BFR-K, two putative open reading frames (ORFs) were identified; (1) the t-3 gene encoding a 396-amino-acids protein of a putative metalloprotease; (2) the third gene encoding an ORF of a 59-amino-acids protein, whose function has not yet beenn characterized. The expression of the t-3 gene in B. fragilis 419 was verified by western blot analysis.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.142-146
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• 2013

Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) causes inflammatory diarrhea in humans and animals and is also implicated in colorectal cancer. ETBF-infected mice exhibit a prominent large intestinal inflammation characterized by neutrophil infiltration and induction of the Th17 response. In this study, we examined differences in the secreted cytokine profile of the cecum and proximal colon of ETBF-infected mice using an antibody array. Of the cytokines examined, we found that the cecal tissues from ETBF-infected mice secreted elevated levels of G-CSF, IL-6, IL-17 and LIX compared to non-toxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (NTBF) and Mock infected mice. The proximal colon tissues from ETBF-infected mice secreted higher levels of G-CSF, IL-6, KC, LIX, MIP-1g and MCP-1. This study demonstrates that the cecum and colon should be considered separately when assays are used to determine immune responsiveness to enteric infections.