The production of toxin by Bacillus sordellii (Cl. sordellii) in comparison with other clostridia

Abstract

IN continuation of a series of papers published during the last few years on conditions which influence the production of gas-gangrene toxins (Walbum and Reymann, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937 and 1938 we communicate below the result of our investigations into toxin production in cultures of Bacillus sordellii. The present report concludes-at least for the time being--our communications on this subject. The technique of the experiments was on the whole very similar to that outlined in previous papers. Sordelli (1922) was the first to show the production of specific thermolabile toxin in cultures of those organisms which he had described as B. cedemtis sporogenes and which Hall and Scott (1927) renamed B. sordellii. The medium used by Sordelli was ordinary broth with the addition of 2 per cent. Park Davis peptone ( p H 8.0) ; the incubation period was 2-6 days. Sordelli states that the toxin of this organism is a typical exotoxin which is not neutralised by the other gas-gangrene sera. This author was the &st to produce a specific antitoxin by irnmunising horses. Weinberg, Davesne and Lefranc (1931) isolated two French strains with similar characteristics. Hall and Scott showed that B. sordellii grows at p H 5-5-8-0, that it ferments glucose, lavulose and maltose, and that the lesions in animals strongly resemble those caused by B. nowyi (Cl. cedematiens). Meleney, Humphreys and Carp (1926-27) showed that toxin production is satisfactory both in plain broth and in cooked meat medium to which 0.2 per cent. glucose has been added, and furthermore that the culture filtrates possess slightly proteolytic properties. Humphreys and Meleney (1927-28) obtained the best results with cooked meat broth to which 1 per cent. Witte peptone and 0.2 per cent. glucose had been added, and by incubating for 40 hours at 37" C. Hall, Rymer and Jungherr (1929) reported that no rapidly lethal toxin is formed in the cultures, although very large doses, injected intravenously, kill mice within 4-5 hours. These authors corroborate the statement by Meleney, Humphreys and Carp that the toxin weakens rapidly a t ordinary temperatures but more slowly in the cold room. At 56" C. it is totally destroyed within one hour. For immunisation 0.3 per cent. tricresol was added and the toxin kept a t 3" C.Production of toxin under varying conditions. B. sordellii is not exacting in its anaerobic demands. It grows luxuriantly in ordinary peptone broth, with or without meat a t the bottom of the culture, boiled in the customary manner and 185

The Histotoxic Clostridial Infections of Man 12

“…It is stated to be thermolabile, nonhemolytic, and highly active against laboratory animals, producing a severe gelatinous oedema very similar to that occasioned by C. novyi a-toxin. The two toxins are, however, antigenically distinct (408,958,1041,1054,1056).…”