en باکتری شناسی پزشکی Medical bacteriology پژوهشي Research <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background</strong>: Urinary tract infections are one of the most frequent health problems and Uropathogenic <em>Escherichia coli</em> is the major pathogen resulting UTIs. The severity of UTIs is caused by the expression of a large range of virulence factors.In this study, we evaluated the allelic frequency <em>fimH </em>gene, in UPECs isolated from patients with UTIs. This study also aimed to determine the roles of C640T and T591A SNPs of the fimH gene in the ability of UPEC to cause UTIs.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Material and Methods: </strong>A total of 140 UPEC strains isolated from patients with UTIs were screened by PCR-RFLP for determining the prevalence of the C640T and T591A SNPs of <em>fimH</em> gene in UPEC strains isolated from patients referred to educational hospitals of Shahrekord. The genotyping of C640T and T591A SNPs was performed using <em>Bme</em>1390I and <em>BseN</em>I restriction enzymes, respectively through PCR-RFLP method.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results:</strong> There were no meaningful association between C640T and T591A SNPs of <em>fimH</em> gene and the ability of UPEC fimH variants to cause UTIs in the studied E. coli isolates.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> FimH is one of the most major virulence factors among UPECs which is confirmed in most E. coli isolates. Further studies are required to determine the association between different <em>fimH</em> gene SNPs of isolated UPECs from UTIs patients and the ability of UPEC fimH variants to cause UTIs.</p> UTIs, fimH, C640T and T591A SNPs, PCR-RFLP 9 14 http://rmm.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-811-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Razieh Molaie ra_mo2@yahoo.com 10031947532846005128 10031947532846005128 No Cell and Molecular Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences,Shahrekord,Iran Fariba Dehghanian fd.dehghanian@gmail.com 10031947532846005129 10031947532846005129 No Division of Genetics, Biology Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Zohreh Hojati z.hojati@sci.ui.ac.ir 10031947532846005130 10031947532846005130 No Division of Genetics, Biology Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Abolfazl Gholipour gholipour_abolfazl@yahoo.com 10031947532846005131 10031947532846005131 Yes Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.