Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1979 Mar;9(3):453–456. doi: 10.1128/jcm.9.3.453-456.1979

Exotoxin activity associated with the Legionnaires disease bacterium.

W B Baine, J K Rasheed, D C Mackel, C A Bopp, J G Wells, A F Kaufmann
PMCID: PMC273048  PMID: 572374

Abstract

Hemolysis occurred around growth of the Legionnaires disease bacterium on supplemented Mueller-Hinton agar containing sterile defibrinated blood from each of five mammalian species. Hemolysis was most pronounced with guinea pig or rabbit blood, was less intense with horse or sheep blood, and was slight with blood from a human donor. Sterile filtrates of allantoic fluid from embryonated hen's eggs that had been infected with this organism displayed hemolytic activity in a radial hemolysis assay with guinea pig cells in agar. Growth of the Legionnaires disease bacterium on F-G agar with 5% hen's egg yolk was surrounded by a zone of clearing and more circumscribed zones of iridescence and increased opacity on and in the medium. Attempts to detect activity analogous to that of Escherichia coli heat-labile or heat-stable enterotoxin in allantoic fluid from infected eggs or in cultures of the Legionnaires disease bacterium were not successful.

Full text

PDF
453

Images in this article

454Image
on p.454
454Image
on p.454
455Image
on p.455

Selected References

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

  1. Blackmon J. A., Hicklin M. D., Chandler F. W. Legionnaires' disease. Pathological and historical aspects of a 'new' disease. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1978 Jul;102(7):337–343. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dean A. G., Ching Y. C., Williams R. G., Harden L. B. Test for Escherichia coli enterotoxin using infant mice: application in a study of diarrhea in children in Honolulu. J Infect Dis. 1972 Apr;125(4):407–411. doi: 10.1093/infdis/125.4.407. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Feeley J. C., Gorman G. W., Weaver R. E., Mackel D. C., Smith H. W. Primary isolation media for Legionnaires disease bacterium. J Clin Microbiol. 1978 Sep;8(3):320–325. doi: 10.1128/jcm.8.3.320-325.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Greenberg H. B., Sack D. A., Rodriguez W., Sack R. B., Wyatt R. G., Kalica A. R., Horswood R. L., Chanock R. M., Kapikian A. Z. Microtiter solid-phase radioimmunoassay for detection of Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin. Infect Immun. 1977 Sep;17(3):541–545. doi: 10.1128/iai.17.3.541-545.1977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Guerrant R. L., Brunton L. L., Schnaitman T. C., Rebhun L. I., Gilman A. G. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate and alteration of Chinese hamster ovary cell morphology: a rapid, sensitive in vitro assay for the enterotoxins of Vibrio cholerae and Escherichia coli. Infect Immun. 1974 Aug;10(2):320–327. doi: 10.1128/iai.10.2.320-327.1974. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. McDade J. E., Shepard C. C., Fraser D. W., Tsai T. R., Redus M. A., Dowdle W. R. Legionnaires' disease: isolation of a bacterium and demonstration of its role in other respiratory disease. N Engl J Med. 1977 Dec 1;297(22):1197–1203. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197712012972202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Morris G. K., Merson M. H., Sack D. A., Wells J. G., Martin W. T., Dewitt W. E., Feeley J. C., Sack R. B., Bessudo D. M. Laboratory investigation of diarrhea in travelers to Mexico: evaluation of methods for detecting enterotoxigenic Echerichia coli. J Clin Microbiol. 1976 May;3(5):486–495. doi: 10.1128/jcm.3.5.486-495.1976. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Sack D. A., Sack R. B. Test for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli using Y-1 adrenal cells in miniculture. Infect Immun. 1975 Feb;11(2):334–336. doi: 10.1128/iai.11.2.334-336.1975. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. TURNER J. C., ANDERSON H. M., GANDAL C. P. Species differences in red blood cell phosphatides separated by column and paper chromatography. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1958 Oct;30(1):130–134. doi: 10.1016/0006-3002(58)90249-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. WILLIS A. T., GOWLAND G. Some observations on the mechanism of the Nagler reaction. J Pathol Bacteriol. 1962 Jan;83:219–226. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Winn W. C., Jr, Glavin F. L., Perl D. P., Keller J. L., Andres T. L., Brown T. M., Coffin C. M., Sensecqua J. E., Roman L. N., Craighead J. E. The pathology of Legionnaires' disease. Fourteen fatal cases from the 1977 outbreak in Vermont. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1978 Jul;102(7):344–350. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES