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Mucoid Escherichia coli in cystic fibrosis.

Patients with cystic fibrosis commonly harbor in their lungs strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that have a mucoid coating considered virtually pathognomonic for the disease. We found that strains of Escherichia coli with a morphologically similar mucoid coating were present in the respiratory tracts of eight (11.8 per cent) of 68 patients with cystic fibrosis whose sputum cultures yielded Esch. coli, as compared with none of 89 patients without cystic fibrosis who had Esch. coli in sputum. Mucoid strains of Esch. coli were also recovered from the stools of five (11.1 per cent) of 45 patients with cystic fibrosis, as compared with one (0.7 per cent) of 150 patients without cystic fibrosis. The mucoid substances purified from Esch. coli were biochemically and antigenically distinct from those of P. aeruginosa. We conclude that the respiratory tract in cystic fibrosis offers an environment conducive to the production of a mucoid coating not only by P. aeruginosa but by other gram-negative bacilli as well.