Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1987 Sep;25(9):1701–1704. doi: 10.1128/jcm.25.9.1701-1704.1987

Reaction of fungal products with amebocyte lysates of the Japanese horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus.

D S Hodes 1, D Heon 1, A Hass 1, A C Hyatt 1, H L Hodes 1
PMCID: PMC269311  PMID: 3308950

Abstract

A commercially available endotoxin assay (CS-TAL) employing a chromogenic peptide and an amebocyte lysate from the Japanese horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus, gave a positive result with aqueous extracts of all 15 strains of Candida albicans and 1 strain each of Candida tropicalis, Cryptococcus neoformans, and a Mucor species that we tested. Purified glucans prepared from the Candida strains gave the same results. Reconstruction experiments showed that the positive results were not due to contaminating endotoxin. By contrast, assays employing amebocyte lysates of the American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, were inconsistent. Japanese workers have presented evidence that glucans activate the Tachypleus amebocyte lysate system by acting on an enzyme different from that on which endotoxin acts. Using a Tachypleus lysate preparation (Endospecy; Seikagaku Kogyo, Tokyo, Japan) from which this enzyme was excluded, we demonstrated a 5- to 10-fold drop in reactivity to the aqueous Candida extracts and glucans, whereas reactivity to endotoxin was unchanged. Normal human plasma was shown to decrease the effect of fungal extracts on CS-TAL. This inhibition was completely removed by heating the plasma. Our results suggest that Tachypleus systems may be of use clinically in distinguishing bacterial from fungal infections.

Full text

PDF

Selected References

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

  1. BRAUDE A. I., McCONNELL J., DOUGLAS H. Fever from pathogenic fungi. J Clin Invest. 1960 Aug;39:1266–1276. doi: 10.1172/JCI104142. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cutler J. E., Friedman L., Milner K. C. Biological and chemical characterization of toxic substances from Candida albicans. Infect Immun. 1972 Oct;6(4):616–627. doi: 10.1128/iai.6.4.616-627.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Grimmecke H. D., Reuter G. Struktur der Zellwandpolysaccharide in der Futtereiweiss-Hefe Candida spec. H. VI. Isolierung und Strukturaufklärung der Glucane. Z Allg Mikrobiol. 1981;21(9):643–650. doi: 10.1002/jobm.3630210903. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. HARKNESS W. D., LOVING W. L., HODGES F. A. Pyrexia in rabbits following the injection of filtrates of typical mold cultures. J Am Pharm Assoc Am Pharm Assoc. 1950 Sep;39(9):502–504. doi: 10.1002/jps.3030390908. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Harada-Suzuki T., Morita T., Iwanaga S., Nakamura S., Niwa M. Further studies on the chromogenic substrate assay method for bacterial endotoxins using horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) hemocyte lysate. J Biochem. 1982 Sep;92(3):793–800. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jbchem.a133991. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hass A., Rossberg M. I., Hodes H. L., Hyatt A. C., Hodes D. S. Endotoxin levels in immunocompromised children with fever. J Pediatr. 1986 Aug;109(2):265–269. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(86)80383-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kakinuma A., Asano T., Torii H., Sugino Y. Gelation of Limulus amoebocyte lysate by an antitumor (1 leads to 3)-beta-D-glucan. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1981 Jul 30;101(2):434–439. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(81)91278-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Morita T., Nakamura T., Miyata T., Iwanaga S. Biochemical characterization of Limulus clotting factors and inhibitors which interact with bacterial endotoxins. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1985;189:53–66. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Obayashi T., Tamura H., Tanaka S., Ohki M., Takahashi S., Arai M., Masuda M., Kawai T. A new chromogenic endotoxin-specific assay using recombined limulus coagulation enzymes and its clinical applications. Clin Chim Acta. 1985 Jun 30;149(1):55–65. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(85)90273-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. SALVIN S. B. Endotoxin in pathogenic q fungi. J Immunol. 1952 Jul;69(1):89–99. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Wildfeuer A., Heymer B., Spilker D., Schleifer K. H., Vanek E., Haferkamp O. Use of limulus assay to compare the biological activity of peptidoglycan and endotoxin. Z Immunitatsforsch Exp Klin Immunol. 1975 Jul;149(2-4):258–264. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES