The influence of specific antibody on the disappearance of staphylococcal enterotoxin B from blood.

Staphylococcus aureus produces a variety of toxins, enzymes, and metabolites, among which are enterotoxins A and B, exotoxins associated with certain outbreaks of food poisoning (2). Recent reports have established the lethal nature of enterotoxin B after its intravenous injection, with death in experimental animals characterized by profound shock (3-5). Fever and several other toxic manifestations of intravenously administered staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) resemble those of bacterial endotoxin (6-10). In view of a possible etiologic relationship of staphylococcal enterotoxin to the shock syndrome of staphylococcal sepsis, there has been surprisingly little investigation of intravenously administered enterotoxin. The purified toxin produced by Schantz and coworkers (11) has been characterized extensively. It was shown to be a simple protein, free of any detectable lipid or carbohydrate, having a molecular weight of approximately 35,000. Electrophoretic studies revealed its migration as a single component with an isoelectric point of pH 8.6. Serologic studies by means of the Oudin and Ouchterlony techniques indicated greater than 99%o homogeneity. It will withstand a temperature of 60° C for 16 hours without loss of toxicity. Previous work performed in our laboratory showed that SEB was cleared rapidly from the blood of experimental animals (4). It was observed further that animals surviving an initial challenge appeared to clear SEB at a somewhat slower rate after a second challenge. In contrast,