The properties of a synthetically produced peptide composed of the same primary structure of 18 amino acids described for human Escherichia coli heat-stable enterotoxin were compared with those of purified heat-stable toxin obtained by bacterial growth. The dosage required to evoke fluid secretion in the suckling mouse and rat ligated ileal loop assays was the same for both toxins. The antigeni...

One half million patients suffer from colorectal cancer in industrialized nations, yet this disease exhibits a low incidence in under-developed countries. This geographic imbalance suggests an environmental contribution to the resistance of endemic populations to intestinal neoplasia. A common epidemiological characteristic of these colon cancer-spared regions is the prevalence of enterotoxigen...

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli grown in the presence of lincomycin and tetracycline produced an increased amount of heat-labile enterotoxin (LT). These antibiotics increased the production of not only extracellular LT but also intracellular LT. On the other hand, lincomycin did not stimulate the production of heat-stable enterotoxin by enterotoxigenic E. coli. The extracellular LTs produced i...

Vibrio mimicus has recently been isolated from aquatic environments of Bangladesh. A total of 125 of 300 environmental isolates, representing various biotypes, and 19 human isolates were tested for enteropathogenicity by using several models. Less than 1% of the environmental isolates and slightly more than 10% of the clinical isolates produced cholera toxin-like toxin. A significant percentage...

The effect of Escherichia coli heat-stable (ST) enterotoxin on calcium and cyclic nucleotide metabolism in rat basophilic leukemia cell cultures was investigated. Addition of ST enterotoxin to rat basophilic leukemia cell cultures resulted in dose- and time-dependent stimulation of calcium uptake and elevation of the intracellular cyclic GMP (cGMP) concentration. The effect of ST enterotoxin on...

E. coli heat stable enterotoxin STa is an agonist of the membrane guanylate cyclase C whose endogenous ligands are the peptide hormones guanylin and uroguanylin. Whereas these peptides contain only two disulfide bonds, STa is stabilized by one additional disulfide bridge. We chemically synthesized the enterotoxin STh that originates from the E. coli strain found in humans, and we determined its...

The plasmid mediation and transmissibility of heat-stable enterotoxin production and multiple antibiotic resistance have been demonstrated for Escherichia coli O78:K80:H12 epidemiologically incriminated in a hospital outbreak of infantile diarrhea. The conjugal transfer of a 67 X 10(6) - and a 30 X 10(6)-dalton plasmid was associated with the transfer of resistances and enterotoxin production, ...