Skip to main content
Applied Microbiology logoLink to Applied Microbiology
. 1974 Jan;27(1):185–186. doi: 10.1128/am.27.1.185-186.1974

Rapid Method for Determining Serum Bactericidal Activity

Richard B Provonchee 1,2, Stephen H Zinner 1,2
PMCID: PMC379990  PMID: 4589128

Abstract

To screen large numbers of sera, a method was devised which utilizes the Steers-Foltz replicator which is usually used to determine minimal inhibitory concentration for antibiotics. Each of the wells (9 by 15 mm) of the replicator is filled with 0.06 ml of serum, 0.02 ml of a 105 suspension of organisms, and 0.02 ml of diluent (tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane-hydrochloride buffer, pH 8.4). The mixtures are incubated for 3 h, and samples are taken at 0, 1, 2, and 3 h by stamping duplicate nutrient agar plates (approximately 0.04 ml from each well). Plates are incubated overnight, and bactericidal activity is estimated by visual inspection of bacterial growth at each site for each sampling time. Results obtained with 28 serum-organism pairs paralleled standard pipetting-pour plate methods. The replicator method for determining bactericidal activity allows for the testing of a large number of samples and requires negligible amounts of serum.

Full text

PDF
185

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Taylor P. W., Roberts A. P., Gower P. E. Evaluation of a technique for the estimation of serum bactericidal activity against Gram-negative organisms. Med Lab Technol. 1972 Jul;29(3):272–279. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES