溶原性ジフテリア菌の毒素産生

とくに放出過程からみた毒素産生機構に対する一考察

抄録

In order to study the mechanisms of toxin production, the relation of toxin release of toxinogenic strains (C4 (β) and PW8) to its biological states was observed.
The process of the toxin liberation by untreated organisms (C4 (β)) was not parallel with the phage release, suggesting that the toxin liberation is independent of the bacteriolysis by phage maturation.
When the phage maturation was inhibited by proflavin, the release of toxin was almost equal to the proflavin untreated organisms, showing again that the liberation of toxin is not associated with the bacteriolysis.
Also in ultra-violet irradiation, the process of toxin liberation did not associate with the phage release.
From the observations on the toxin production of ultra-violet irradiated and of antibiotics treated cells, it was showed that the viability and growth of organisms were required at least for the toxin production.
It was interesting that the growth of organisms was accompanied by toxin liberation in spite of no cell division by adding penicillin.
It might be suggested that prerequisites for the toxin production were the viability and the growth of the cells and the cell division was not necessary.
From the consideration of these results, the possibility of toxin formation by cell-free systems was. discussed.