A PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF FINGERPRINTING OF PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA BY WHOLE-CELL PROTEIN-ANALYSIS BY SDS-PAGE

Forty two strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from bronchoalveo lar lavage fluid from intubated patients admitted to the Intensive car e unit in AIIMS between December 1993 to June 1994 were included in th e study, After obtaining typical biochemical profile, antimicrobial su sceptibility was performed against ceftazidime, amikacin, gentamicin, ampicillin, cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin. Pyocin typing of these 42 st rains was performed by scrape and streak method using 22 indicator str ains. Forty strains could be typed showing excellent discrimination bu t on repeated testing the group designation changed indicating that th e system had low reproducibility. SDS-PAGE of whole cell protein profi le indicated the presence of 45 protein bands of different molecular w eights, individual isolates had 37 to 42 protein band ranging in molec ular weight from 340 kDa to 14.3 kDa. On the basis of Dice index of si milarity the strains could be grouped into 20 types. Since all strains could be typed, the system has adequate typability. Similar results w ere obtained on repeated testing indicating good reproducibility.