ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: A clinical chromatographic fingerprinting of 18 standard strains of Mycobacteria commercialized in China by high-performance liquid chromatography approach was developed and improved in this laboratory. A comparison of clinical chromatographic fingerprintings of mycolic acids was carried out. METHODS: Mycolic acids were extracted from whole cultured cells of Mycobacteria by biochemical methods, and then samples was prepared for analysis after the mycolic acids were saponified, acidified and derived. The samples were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography under optimum conditions. RESULTS: Using above techniques a clinical chromatographic fingerprinting of Mycolic acids analysis was successfully established. The repeatability of the mycolic acids fingerprinting was evaluated. Coefficient of variation (CV) of chromatographic fingerprinting was between 0.20% - 0.83%. CONCLUSIONS: The first clinical chromatographic fingerprinting of 18 standard strains of Mycobacteria in China was established in this laboratory. Mycobacteria can be accurately identified according to chromatographic fingerprinting in a short time. Moreover, there was significant difference between BCG vaccine and Mycobacterium bovis when their peak was compared, which may lead to research of new tools for identifying insidious infection of tuberculosis and for the study of the mechanism of drug tolerance.