Streptococcal antibodies in patients with burn injuries

Abstract

SUMMARYSerum samples from 14 patients whose burns had become infected with streptococci of groups A (11 patients), C (one patient) or G (two patients), and from 19 burned patients without bacteriological evidence of streptococcal infection were examined for anti-streptococcal antibodies. Tests were made for anti-streptolysin O (ASO), anti-hyaluronidase (AH), anti-deoxyribonuclease B (anti-DNAase B) and antibody against M-associated protein (MAP). Sera from the patients with streptococcal infections were also examined, when this was practicable, for ‘bactericidal’ (anti-M) antibody and for antibody against the opacity factor (OF) of the infecting serotype.In patients infected with group A streptococci, the ASO response was generally poor, except in patients infected with strains of type T12/M12, and the AH response was rather similar, but most of the patients gave a rapid and vigorous anti-DNAase B response, except when the burn was small or colonization occurred very late. Antibody to the M and MAP antigens, and to OF (when the infecting strain formed this), was weak and transient, or absent, except in three of four patients infected with streptococci of type T12/M12.

Electrophoretic Patterns of Extracellular Deoxyribonuclease (DNase) and Their Correlation with T‐Type in Group A Streptococci

“…Using five strains of group A streptococci (S. pyogenes), Wannamaker and coworkers (17,18) showed that four immunologically and electrophoretically distinct extracellular DNases, designated DNases A, B, C, and D, are produced and that the relative amount of each enzyme produced varies in these strains. From the clinical viewpoint, DNase B is believed to be the most significant DNase because a high antibody response to it has been demonstrated in the sera of patients infected with group A streptococci (1,2,5,8,15,19). However, it remains uncertain whether the production of DNase B is a common property of group A streptococci and whether multiple DNase produced within the same species are homogeneous, because few studies on their extracellular DNase have been reported and in these only a small number of clinical isolates were used.…”