SEARCHING FOR MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM SUBSPECIES PARATUBERCULOSIS FROM BREAST MILK OF TWO CROHN S DISEASE PATIENTS AND THEIR INFANTS BY NESTED-PCR: CASE REPORT

Background and Aim:Crohn’s disease (CD) is one major types of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic inflammatory condition which affects millions of people around the world. However the cause of the disease is still unknown, a number of theories regarding the aetiology of Crohn’s disease have been proposed. The two leading theories are the infectious and autoimmune theories. Considering the isolation of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) from intestinal tissue, blood, stool and milk samples of Crohn’s disease patients and reports that have presented about its transmission from pasteurized milk and meat to human, it’s thought to be one of the factors causing Crohn’s disease is MAP. The purpose of this study was to identify the MAP from the breast milk of Crohn’s disease patients and its transmission probability from mother to infant.Methods:9 breast milk samples (2 mothers with CD and 7 healthy controls) and 9 fecal specimens of their infants were obtained. DNA extraction was performed from the samples. In order to identify contaminated samples, specific primers IS900 gene was amplified with Nested-PCR assay. Finally PCR products were electrophoresed on 1.5% agarose gel.Results:From 18 examined samples of milk and feces, none of the specimens was found positive and infected with MAP on the basis of Nested-PCR analysis.Conclusion:Despite the fact that our identification method was accurate, we did not identify the MAP in the samples of milk and stool. But controversy over the relationship between MAP and CD and other autoimmune diseases is still ongoing.

کلیدواژه ها:

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis ، Inflammatory bowel disease ، Crohn’s disease ، IS900 Nested PCR ، Milk ، Autoimmune disease