Variable effect of toxic shock toxins from different sources on neutrophil function in vitro.

Toxic shock syndrome toxins (TSST) are 23-30 kD proteins that have been isolated from incubation media of strains of Staphylococcus aureus cultured from patients with toxic shock syndrome (TSS). Injection of TSST into animals produces many of the symptoms that characterize TSS including shock, fever, and multiple organ failure. We found that addition of increasing concentrations of TSST-1-VP1035-16A, but not TSST-PEC, TSST-SEC, staphylococcal enterotoxin A or B, progressively decreased human neutrophil bactericidal activity against S. aureus, 502A in vitro. TSST-1-VP1035-16A, but not the other toxins, also decreased superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide concentrations in mixtures containing neutrophils and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) in vitro. The results indicate that various preparations of TSST have different effects on neutrophil function in vitro and, accordingly, may have different effects in other in vitro and in vivo models of TSS.