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. 1977 Mar;15(3):760–764. doi: 10.1128/iai.15.3.760-764.1977

Effect of protein A on staphylococcal opsonization.

P K Peterson, J Verhoef, L D Sabath, P G Quie
PMCID: PMC421436  PMID: 870431

Abstract

To study the effect of wall protein A on bacterial opsonization, phagocytosis of 10 strains of Staphylococcus aureus with high and low protein A contents was measured. Those strains that contained the highest concentrations of protein A were phagocytized by human neutrophils at a slower rate than strains with little or no protein A when normal human serum and purified immunoglobulin G (IgG) were used as opsonic sources. When IgG-deficient serum was used as an source, however, protein A-rich strains were phagocytized more rapidly than protein A-deficient strains. Extracellular (purified) protein A decrease the opsonic activity of all sera tested including IgG-deficient serum. It is proposed that when IgG is not present in the opsonic medium, cell wall protein A is capable of activating complement at the bacterial surface and thereby opsonization is promoted.

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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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