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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291
Published on: December 10, 2016
Novel evidence suggesting Clostridium difficile is present in human gut microbiota more frequently than previously
Masahiro Iizuka1, Shiho Konno, Hiroaki Itou
1Department of Internal Medicine, Akita University School of Medicine, Japan.
Abstract:
Prevalence rate of Clostridium difficile in healthy human adults is believed to be very low. Our RT-PCR system using glass powder, which can eliminate PCR inhibitors, detected C. difficile toxin B mRNA in 16 of 30 fecal samples (53.3%) from healthy human adults. In contrast, we failed to detect toxin B in the same fecal samples by PCR using DNA templates extracted with phenol-chloroform. Our results suggest that PCR inhibitors in feces carried through phenol-chloroform extraction procedure might suppress the sensitivity of PCR and that C. difficile is actually present in human gut microbiota more frequently than previously suspected.
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