Aeromonas hydrophila is widely distributed throughout the world and causes diseases to animals and human exposed to contaminated environments such as water and soil. This study aimed to compare between isolates of A. hydrophila collected from clinical and environmental samples, through investigating the phenotype of some virulence factors in vitro, including hemolysin, protease, lipase, nuclease and biofilm formation ability. Also, the antimicrobial susceptibility for different antibiotics was determined using disc diffusion method. For genotypic identification of isolates and phylogenetic tree construction, 16S rDNA target gene was amplified and sequenced. The phenotypic results showed some differences between the isolates (clinical and environmental). All isolates were resistance to clindamycin, amoxicillin and erythromycin while susceptible to gentamicin, amikacin and vancomycin. Sequences of 16S rDNA confirmed the identification of the studied bacteria as A. hydrophila with 99-100% , and identity and phylogenetic tree by neighbor-joining clearly separated the isolates in a branching pattern which displayed similarity to the GenBank isolates obtained from Asian regions. The clinical isolates showed less polymorphism than the environmental isolates.
Background: Alcohol remains the single most significant cause of liver disease throughout the Western world, responsible for between 40 and 80% of cases of cirrhosis in different countries. Many of the factors underlying the development of alcoholic liver injury remain unknown, and significant questions remain about the value of even very basic therapeutic strategies.
Patients and Methods: In a cross sectional study, 113 alcoholic patients with evidence of liver disease in the absence of other significant etiology attending the Gastoenterorology and Hepatology Teaching Hospital between December 2001 and December 2003 were studied for the hematological and biochemical spectrum of alcoholic liver disease in