[DNA fingerprinting by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus].

Recently, nosocomial outbreaks of MRSA have become an important social problem in Japan. To examine the routes of transmission of MRSA, the establishment of accurate MRSA typing system is essential. However, more recently, because MRSA strains with type II coagulase have been increasing, it is difficult to discriminate MRSA strains by the coagulase typing method. Under this background, our study was designed to evaluate the clinical significance of DNA fingerprinting by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR). Several MRSA strains isolated from patients in our department were used in this study. To optimize the condition of AP-PCR, the differences of amplified products by AP-PCR were evaluated according to the following conditions: extracting methods of DNA from MRSA strains, buffer conditions, the temperature of AP-PCR, cycles of AP-PCR, and several primers. As a result, the optimal conditions of AP-PCR were as follows: extracted DNA using the InstaGene kit, amplified DNA by two-step AP-PCR using a M13 reverse primer with a buffer condition of 3.5 mM of magnesium chloride, and a pH of 8.5. The results of AP-PCR correlated well with the results of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. In conclusion, DNA fingerprinting by AP-PCR seems to be useful in examining the nosocomial MRSA outbreak.