In this study,
alginate,
elastase and
alkaline protease production of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which are accepted as
virulence factors, have been investigated in the strains isolated from 60 lower respiratory tract samples of
cystic fibrosis patients, together with the strains isolated from 59 lower respiratory tract, 62 urine and 32 blood samples of non-
cystic fibrosis patients, in order to evaluate the relationship between the
virulence factors and infected body sites. Our results indicated that all isolates including the ones from
cystic fibrosis patients produced similar levels of
alginate ranging between 1.830+/-1.666 and 1.305+/-1.690 microg/ml with the exception of urinary isolates for which the
alginate amount was 0.9655+/-1.386 (p<0.05).
Elastase levels exhibited no statistically significant difference among groups of isolates; and finally
alkaline protease levels, although not statistically significant, was greater in urine isolates than blood and respiratory isolates; however, it was significantly lower in
cystic fibrosis isolates compared to the remaining three groups (p<0.05). It can be concluded that
alginate,
elastase and
alkaline protease levels do not differ when different body sites are considered. However, it was observed that
alkaline protease was the least produced
virulence factor in terms of different body sites.
Alginate was found to be the most commonly produced
virulence factor in respiratory tract isolates, regardless of presence of
cystic fibrosis.