Abstract
Volk and Lipschutz 1 apparently were the first to study the action of hypertonic salt solutions on staphylococcus hemotoxin. The salts used were NaCl, Na2SO4, MgSO4(NH4)2, SO4 and BaCl2. It was their opinion that staphylococcus toxin was not destroyed but that the hemolytic action was inhibited in the presence of hypertonic concentrations of the neutral salts with one exception and that was with BaCl2.
Recently one of us has studied the effect of NaCl on the hemolytic and skin necrotizing factors in staphylococcus toxin. 2 , 3 It was found that a hypertonic solution of NaCl inhibited the degree and rate of lysis of rabbits' ed blood cells. When a 5% concentration of NaCl was injected intradermally in rabbits prior to the intra-dermal injection of staphylococcus toxin skin necrosis was inhibited at the site of toxin injection.
The above observations suggested a further study of the effect of various salts on the hemolytic and skin necrotizing factors in staphylococcus toxin. The salts studied are given in Table I. The toxin preparation is the same as previously used. 2 , 3 Washed rabbits' red cells were added to M/1, M/2, and M/4 solutions of the different salts to make a 1 % suspension in a 2 cc. volume. The least amount of toxin which would completely hemolyse this concentration of cells suspended in 2.0 cc. of physiological saline was the amount of toxin used in all the tests. The toxin was added not less than 10 minutes after the cells were placed in the salt solutions. The titrations were read after standing at room temperature over night. The control titrations were run without toxin. The pH of all the salt solutions was determined.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.