Division of Laboratories and Research, New York State Department of Health, Branch Laboratory, New York, N. Y.
J Exp Med. 1931 May 31;53(6):821-6. doi: 10.1084/jem.53.6.821.
As determined by the intracutaneous test in guinea pigs, diphtheria toxin is not altered in the presence of cardiac tissue obtained from the fetal or from the adult heart of the guinea pig. Tissue cultures were apparently uninjured by the presence of the toxin in the dilutions used in these experiments, and, when washed with embryo extract after removal of the diluted toxin, continued to grow. Embryonic guinea pig cardiac muscle tissue growing in cultures in vitro possesses the power of neutralizing, binding, or destroying diphtheria toxin so that it is no longer toxic for normal guinea pigs. Such neutralization takes place through the intervention of growing tissue and is a property which is lacking in similar surviving tissue not in a state of cultivation. Thus, it appears that the living, growing cells of the tissues neutralize or destroy limited quantities of toxin; only when the quantity of toxin exceeds a certain limit is its action injurious.
豚鼠皮内试验表明，在心脏组织存在的情况下，白喉毒素并没有发生变化，而这种心脏组织取自豚鼠胎儿或成体。组织培养显然没有受到实验中所用稀释毒素的影响，并且在用胚胎提取物冲洗去除稀释毒素后，继续生长。在体外培养的豚鼠胚胎心肌组织中，具有中和、结合或破坏白喉毒素的能力，使其对正常豚鼠不再有毒性。这种中和作用是通过生长组织的干预发生的，是一种在培养状态下缺失的特性。因此，似乎是组织的活细胞和生长细胞中和或破坏了有限量的毒素；只有当毒素的数量超过一定限度时，它才会产生有害作用。
