[Toxicity of culture supernatants from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (author's transl)].

In an effort to learn more about the pathogenicity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa we studied the culture supernatants of 20 strains of this bacterial species. Of these 5 proved to be highly toxic, 9 moderately toxic and 6 nontoxic for mice. The toxic component could not be separated from protease (elastase), neither by gel-filtration on Sephadex G-100 superfine, nor by isoelectric focusing. From this we assumed that the toxicity of the culture supernatants was associated with elastase. Purified elastase from P. aeruginosa, strain 75, elicited cytotoxic effects in cultures of L-, HeLa- and testicular-cells from calves. It apparently did not damage cultures of kidney-cells from rabbits and pigs.