ABSTRACT
Background: The pathogenesis of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae [NTHi] begins with adhesion to the rhinopharyngeal mucosa. Almost 38-80% of NTHi clinical isolates produce proteins that belong to the High Molecular Weight [HMW] family of adhesins, which are believed to facilitate colonization
Methods: In the present study, the prevalence of hmwA, which encodes the HMW adhesin, was determined for a collection of 32 NTHi isolates. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism [RFLP] was performed to advance our understanding of hmwA binding sequence diversity
Results: The results demonstrated that hmwA was detected in 61% of NTHi isolates. According to RFLP, isolates were divided into three groups
Conclusion: Based on these observations, it is hypothesized that some strains of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae infect some specific areas more than other parts