The Staphy lococcal Exfoliative Toxin Development of a Modified Assay System

Abstract

Certain strains of Staphylococcus aureus produce a toxin which cause epidermal exfoliation within 18 hours after direct subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injection into newborn mice. The extracellular product responsible for exfoliation is termed exfoliative toxin (ET). In the present studies a modified assay system has been developed for detection of exfoliativeactivity in toxin negative strains as determined by standa rd method of Melish and Glasgow. If extracellular supernatant material from naturally occuring ET negative st rains was concentrated 20 fold and inoculated into newborn mice, exfoliative toxin act ivity could be detected,