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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2002, p. 1053-1058, Vol. 46, No. 4
0066-4804/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AAC.46.4.1053-1058.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

blaVIM-2 Cassette-Containing Novel Integrons in Metallo-ß-Lactamase-Producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida Isolates Disseminated in a Korean Hospital

Kyungwon Lee,1,3 Jong Back Lim,1 Jong Hwa Yum,1,3 Dongeun Yong,1 Yunsop Chong,1* June Myung Kim,2,3 and David M. Livermore4

Department of Clinical Pathology and Research Institute of Bacterial Resistance,1 Department of Internal Medicine,2 Brain Korea 21 Project for Medical Sciences, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea,3 Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, London NW9 5HT, United Kingdom4

Received 3 May 2001/ Returned for modification 21 September 2001/ Accepted 13 January 2002

We investigated the phenotypic and genetic properties of metallo-ß-lactamase-producing Pseudomonas isolates collected at a tertiary-care hospital in Korea since 1995. The prevalence of imipenem resistance among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates reached 16% in 1997, when 9% of the resistant organisms were found to produce VIM-2 ß-lactamase, a class B enzyme previously found only in P. aeruginosa isolates from Europe. VIM-2-producing isolates of Pseudomonas putida were also detected. Resistance was transferable from both these species to P. aeruginosa PAO4089Rp by filter mating, although the resistance determinant could not be found on any detectable plasmid. Serotyping showed that many of the VIM-2-producing P. aeruginosa isolates belonged to serotypes O:11 and O:12, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of XbaI-digested genomic DNA revealed that many had identical profiles, whereas the P. putida isolates were diverse. Sequencing showed that the blaVIM-2 genes resided as cassettes in class 1 integrons. In contrast to previous VIM-encoding integrons, the integron sequenced from a P. aeruginosa isolate had blaVIM located downstream of a variant of aacA4. blaVIM also lay in a class 1 integron in a representative P. putida strain, but the organization of this integron was different from that sequenced from the P. aeruginosa strain. In conclusion, the metallo-ß-lactamase produced by these imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas isolates was VIM-2, and the accumulation of producers reflected clonal dissemination as well as horizontal spread. Strict measures are required in order to control a further spread of resistance.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Clinical Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, C.P.O. Box 8044, Seoul, Korea. Phone: (82) 2-361-5866. Fax: (82) 2-313-0908. E-mail: whonetkor{at}yumc.yonsei.ac.kr.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2002, p. 1053-1058, Vol. 46, No. 4
0066-4804/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AAC.46.4.1053-1058.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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