Virulence Factors of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

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Abstract
Further evidence for the role of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli as an etiologic agent of diarrhea is presented. A retrospective study of 71 cases of diarrhea in Mexican children demonstrated that >40% of them harbored E. coli that produced heat-labile and/or heat-stable enterotoxin. The antigenic surface-associated colonization factor of E. coli strain H-10407 has been further characterized; this pilus-like antigen is produced under conditions of growth that repress the production of common pili of E. coli. The E. coli H-I0407-type colonization factor pilus has been identified as one of the antigens possessed by a strain of E. coli that produced only heat-stable enterotoxin and that was responsible for an outbreak of pediatric diarrhea.