Susceptibility of Vaginal Lactobacillus spp. to Benzalkonium Chloride, a Potential Vaginal Antiseptic

초록

Lactobacilli play an important role in maintaining healthy vagina and they produce various inhibitory compounds which can prevent the growth of anaerobic pathogenic bacteria. To treat bacterial vaginosis (BV) antimicrobial agents were used to eliminate the pathogenic bacteria but they can also eliminate vaginal lactobacilli. Over two-year period 105 vaginal lactobacilli were isolated from Korean women and characterized in terms of their susceptibility to benzalkonium chloride (BKC) which could be a potential antiseptic for BV patient. The in vitro BKC susceptibilities of the 105 vaginal isolates were determined by broth dilution method based on NCCLS reference protocol using microtiter plate. The concentration of BKC at which 90% of the vaginal isolates were inhibited (MIC90) was 16 ug/ml whereas all tested pathogenic bacteria, E. faecalis, S. aureus, B.cereus, L monocytogenes, Y. enterocolitica, S.sonnei, S. mutants, P.acnes, C.albicans were inhibited by 2-4 ug/ml BKC except for Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella gallinarum which showed growth at 16ug/ml. However, E. coli, S. enteritidis, S. gallinarum were also inhibited by addition of 1.0 M NaCl in 8 ug/ml BKC solution (pH 5.0).