Abstract
The cytotoxic effect of the culture supernatant of Clostridium tetani on mouse leukemia L1210 cells was studied. As the cytotoxicity of the culture supernatant reached almost the maximum at 24 h after the start of cultivation of the organism, the supernatant fluid was fractionated by addition of ammonium sulfate and the fraction that showed the highest specific cytotoxic activity was subjected to gel filtration. The cytotoxic activity was separated in two peaks in parallel with the hemolytic activity ; both acitvities were decreased by preincubation with cholesterol. An independently purified fraction of tetanolysin also exhibited cytotoxic activity. The results showed that one of the cytotoxic substances was tetanolysin, a hemolysin produced by Clostridium tetani. Furthermore, tetanolysin potentiated the cytotoxicity of 5-fluorouracil in combined treatment.
