Prabhakaran K, Harris E B, Kirchheimer W F
Lepr India. 1979 Jul;51(3):348-57.
It is not clear why host-derived bacteria are metabolically inert, compared to organisms grown in vitro. o-Diphenoloxidase is the only metabolic property proven to be present in Mycobacterium leprae separated from infected human as well as animal (mouse and armadillo) tissues. However, highly concentrated suspensions of M. leprae obtained from the organs of experimentally infected armadillos showed little or extremely low o-diphenoloxidase, while the organisms bound 14C-labeled dopa. When these preparations were diluted, they readily oxidized D-dopa to pigment. The activity remained unaltered by washing the suspensions with dilute alkali or acetone and ether, indicating that it is an intrinsic property of the bacilli. Treatment with different proteases relieved the inhibition, and resulted in a 100% stimulation of O-diphenoloxidase in the bacilli. Evidently, the M. leprae suspensions obtained from infected tissues contain an inhibitory material which is protein in nature, and the metabolic inertness sometimes observed in host-grown bacteria may not be due to loss of enzymes or metabolites from the organisms.
与体外培养的微生物相比，宿主来源的细菌代谢惰性的原因尚不清楚。邻二酚氧化酶是唯一被证明存在于从受感染的人类以及动物（小鼠和犰狳）组织中分离出的麻风分枝杆菌中的代谢特性。然而，从实验感染的犰狳器官中获得的高浓度麻风分枝杆菌悬液显示出很少或极低的邻二酚氧化酶活性，而这些微生物能结合14C标记的多巴。当这些制剂被稀释时，它们很容易将D-多巴氧化成色素。用稀碱或丙酮和乙醚洗涤悬液后，活性保持不变，这表明它是杆菌的固有特性。用不同的蛋白酶处理可解除抑制作用，并使杆菌中的邻二酚氧化酶活性提高100%。显然，从感染组织中获得的麻风分枝杆菌悬液含有一种本质上是蛋白质的抑制物质，宿主生长的细菌中有时观察到的代谢惰性可能不是由于微生物中酶或代谢产物的丧失。
