Active immunization of NMRI mice against Serratia marcescens. I. Phenol-water lipopolysaccharide fractions and purified metalloproteases.

The minimal intraperitoneal (i.p.) immunogenic doses of phenol-hot water lipopolysaccharide (P-W- LPS) preparations from three strains of Serratia marcescens for juvenile NMRI mice ranged from 3.2 to 16 ng following i.p. challenge infection with homologous strains. Dual autoclaving (121 degrees C, 15 min) abolished the cross-immunogenicity of two selected P-W LPS extracts. Four purified metalloproteases from S. marcescens strains SF 178, SH 186, SV O1, and SE 182 shared the following properties: a) inhibition of proteolytic (azocasein hydrolysis) activity by 50 mM of EDTA; b) heat-lability (60 degrees C, 15 min); c) identical molecular weights (54,000 Daltons = 54 K) as documented with the SDS-PAGE procedure; d) close serologic relatedness (ELISA technique, polyclonal rabbit immune sera); and e) uniform reactivity of the 54 K polypeptide bands with polyclonal rabbit anti-metalloprotease immune sera (Western blots). The minimal immunogenic dose of metalloprotease SF 178, the sole significantly murine immunogenic enzyme, was 1000 ng = 1 microgram.