[Antigenic effects of Staphylococcus aureus with modified surface-structures (author's transl)].

Antigenic effects of preparations from Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 31243 and Rd 4 (Table 1) with partially different activities of "clumping factor" (CF) and protein A (PA) were compared (Table 2). The (3 h, 60 degrees C) heat-inactivated (hi) as well as the guanidinium-chloride-extracted (gu) staphylococci retained full activity of CF and PA. Acetylation with N-acetylimidazole inactivated completely CF and partially PA. Treatment of the staphylococci with pronase (pron) removed CF and PA. The hi-, gu- and pron-preparations of both S. aureus strains had similar antigenic properties which differed from those of the acetylated staphylococci, when antisera against all preparations were examined in the agglutination (Table 3) and "growth"-agglutination-tests (Fig 1). Acetylation apparently affected the staphylococcal surface to a larger extent than the other procedures applied in these studies.