Tyramine Production by Intestinal Flora of Ekiri Patients

Abstract

The origin of intoxication in ekiri was sought by the author not only in dysentery infection itself, but also in the intestinal flora of morbid children. Tyramine production by the intestinal flora was investigated, because the severe intoxication phenomena of this disease were assumed to be incited by tyramine liberated by intestinal flora and put into the circulation undetoxified, as a result of hepatic injury caused by dysenteric infection.
1. The stool of 25 ekiri and 20 dysentery patients was examined for the presence of tyramine producing strains by means of paper chromatography. Tyramine producing strains were demonstrated in all ekiri cases examined and occupied on an average 34.4% of total isolated strains of intestinal flora. On the contrary, only a small number of dysentery patients excreted tyramine positive strains, and the proportion of the latter to the total isolated strains gave a low average value of 14%. Dysentery bacilli, isolated both from ekiri and dysentery cases had no tyramine producing activity.
2. The amine liberating activity of 8 tyramine positive coli strains was compared to that of 5 tyramine positive standard coli strains. The former generally exhibited quantitatively higher amine producing activity than the latter, with which only a minimum amount of tyramine was demonstrable. In this experiment tyramine was separated and extracted with ion exchanging resin IRC50 and determined electrophotometrically after Maziac-Schoental's method.
3. The distribution of tyramine positve strains in the intestinal canal was examined at the autopsy of 2 ekiri cases with typical intoxication symptoms and autopsy findings. A large number of tyramine positive coli strains was demonstrated from the colon up to the lower and middle part of the ileum, whereas, in an autopsy case of dysentery, such strains were neither isolated from the stool, nor from any part of the intestinal canal. In another dysentery case with clinically positive bacillus discharge the distribution of the bacilli was restricted to the colon, as revealed by bacteriological examination at autopsy.