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. 1984 Nov;46(2):612–614. doi: 10.1128/iai.46.2.612-614.1984

Does enteropathogenic Escherichia coli produce heat-labile enterotoxin, heat-stable enterotoxins a or b, or cholera toxin A subunits?

S A Long-Krug, C S Weikel, K T Tiemens, E L Hewlett, M M Levine, R L Guerrant
PMCID: PMC261579  PMID: 6389354

Abstract

Although most enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strains do not produce recognized enterotoxins, we wished to examine whether they produce any factors like heat-stable enterotoxin b or cholera toxin active subunits that might be missed by conventional assay methods. E. coli strains E851 (O142) and E2348 (O127) that had caused diarrhea in volunteers were negative for heat-labile enterotoxin and heat-stable enterotoxin a in Chinese hamster ovary cell and suckling mouse assays, failed to cause secretion in ligated small bowel loops from 6- to 8-week-old pigs after 4 to 5 h (used to show heat-stable enterotoxin b), and did not activate adenylate cyclase in pigeon erythrocyte lysates (used to demonstrate cholera toxin A subunit). We conclude that crude, unconcentrated culture filtrates and sonicates do not mimic heat-labile or heat-stable enterotoxins or cholera toxin or its A subunit and that enteropathogenic strains of E. coli probably have yet another mechanism or group of mechanisms by which they cause diarrhea.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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