Rabbit intestinal fluid stimulation by an enterotoxigenic factor of Staphylococcus aureus.

An exoprotein of Staphylococcus aureus 100 that elicited a positive ileal loop response in the rabbit model was investigated in this study. The protein, as it occurred in the culture supernatant fluid, could be detected initially in the late log phase of growth under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. It was stable under acidic conditions to pH 2.0 after 24 h at 4 degrees C. Thirty-minute treatments at 80 degrees C destroyed the ileal loop activity whereas similar trials at 70 degrees C had no effect. Although preparations of staphylococcal enterotoxins purified by other investigators did not produce positive ileal loops, the enterotoxigenic activity of the S. aureus 100 supernatant fluid could be neutralized by antisera prepared against enterotoxins A and B. Throughout purification studies, the active moiety reacted serologically with antiserum A. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the partially purified protein produced migration patterns nearly identical to those of enterotoxin A.