Skin-reactive properties of different cellular fractions of animal-passed C. jejuni/coli.

Polymyxin B treated cell sonicates, cell-free supernatants and outer membrane proteins were prepared from animal-passed, virulence-enhanced strains and original isogenic strains of Cjejuni and tested for dermal toxicity in rabbits. Polymyxin B extracts produced the strongest lesions, but the outer membrane protein from 6 times mouse-passed strains elicited a mild skin reaction. Culture-supernatant did not give any noticeable toxicity, suggesting the presence of insufficient factor required to produce measureable effect. Dermal toxicity clearly differentiated animal-passed strains from unpassed original strains which elicited only a weak response(JPMA 37: 132, 1987).