Effects of staphylococcal enterotoxin A on the rat gastrointestinal tract.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) was administered orally (15 micrograms) to two groups of rats. A marked immune reaction was evoked in the stomach and proximal small intestine of the first group. The second group of rats was used to study the absorptive fate and sites of action of orally administered SEA, utilizing immunoperoxidase staining. After oral dosing of the second group of rats. SEA-related immunoperoxidase staining was confined to: (i) neutrophils and macrophages, principally in the duodenum, and (ii) glomerular neutrophils and cells of the proximal convoluted tubules. Peroxidase staining of the kidney was noted within 15 min of exposure, indicating that SEA or some major postabsorption antigenic product can promptly pass through an intact gastrointestinal mucous membrane and become renally localized. Intestinal and renal detoxification and removal was indicated by an absence of detectable antigen in rats 180 min postexposure. Neuronal binding of SEA in the gastrointestinal tract was not demonstrable.