Figueirêdo Patricia M S, Catani Cleide F, Yano Tomomasa
Departamento de Microbiologia e Imunologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, P.O. Box 6109, 13081-970, Campinas SP, Brazil.
FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 2003 Aug 18;38(1):53-7. doi: 10.1016/S0928-8244(03)00125-1.
Enterohemolysin (EHly) produced by Escherichia coli shows hemolytic activity towards washed erythrocytes from different animal species on blood agar plates. It has been shown recently that EHly activity is inhibited by normal mammalian serum and by cholesterol in vitro. Plasma lipoproteins can interact with bacterial toxins, such as endotoxin, to reduce their toxicity. In this work, we examine the ability of human purified chylomicrons, very low-density lipoproteins, intermediate-density, low-density and high-density lipoproteins, to inhibit the hemolytic activity of EHly. Our results show that these lipoproteins are hemolysin inactivators, and that high-density lipoprotein is the most potent inhibitor of enterohemolytic activity.
