Urban T, Jarstrand C
Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand B. 1979 Aug;87(4):227-33.
All the S. albus, E. coli and P. aeruginosa strains examined reduced nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) to dark blue formazan. The amount of formazan produced was proportional to the number of bacteria. Under the same growth conditions, an equal number of bacteria of various strains produced different amounts of formazan. However, there were statistically verified differences in the NBT-reduction between the three species examined. The NBT-reduction took place in all phases of growth but was most intense in the early logarithmic phase. NBT was found to be toxic for bacteria, and the different strains had varying sensitivity to that effect. The NBT-reaction was markedly enhanced by phenazine methosulphate (PMS). The blue colour of formazan produced from NBT has an advantage over the red colour from triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) if the reaction occurs in the presence of haemoglobin often present in biological materials. With NBT and PMS, 10(6)--10(7) bacteria are needed to form detectable amounts of formazan. The NBT-reduction by bacteria may be useful for measuring the influence of bactericidal, bacteriostatic or growth-stimulating factors on bacteria.
所有检测的白色链霉菌、大肠杆菌和铜绿假单胞菌菌株均将硝基蓝四氮唑（NBT）还原为深蓝色甲臜。产生的甲臜量与细菌数量成正比。在相同生长条件下，等量的不同菌株细菌产生的甲臜量不同。然而，在所检测的这三种菌之间，NBT还原存在经统计学验证的差异。NBT还原在生长的各个阶段均会发生，但在对数早期最为强烈。发现NBT对细菌有毒性，不同菌株对此效应的敏感性不同。吩嗪硫酸甲酯（PMS）可显著增强NBT反应。如果反应在生物材料中常存在的血红蛋白存在的情况下发生，由NBT产生的甲臜的蓝色比氯化三苯基四氮唑（TTC）产生的红色更具优势。使用NBT和PMS时，需要10⁶ - 10⁷个细菌才能形成可检测量的甲臜。细菌的NBT还原可用于测量杀菌、抑菌或生长刺激因子对细菌的影响。
