Molecular characterization of clinical IMP-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from a Chinese Tertiary Hospital

BACKGROUND: IMP-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (IMPKpn) exhibits sporadic prevalence in China. The mechanisms related to the spread of IMPKpn remain unclear. METHODS: Carbapenem non-susceptible K. pneumoniae isolates were collected from our hospital. The genetic relatedness, antimicrobial susceptibility, as well as sequence types (ST) were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), VITEK 2 AST test Kit, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST), respectively. S1-PFGE, Southern blot analysis and multiple PCR amplification were used for plasmid profiling. RESULTS: Between October 2009 and June 2016, 25 non-repetitive IMPKpn isolates were identified. PFGE results showed that these isolates belonged to 20 genetically unrelated IMPKpn strains. Diverse STs were identified by MLST. Most strains carried bla (IMP-4), followed by bla (IMP-1). Four incompatibility types of bla (IMP)-carrying plasmids were identified, which included A/C (n = 2), B/O (n = 2), L/M (n = 1) and N (n = 14), while type of other one plasmid failed to be determined. CONCLUSIONS: The IMPKpn isolates exhibited sporadic prevalence in our hospital. IncN types of plasmids with various sizes have emerged as the main platform mediating the spread of the bla (IMP) genes in our hospital.