BIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON MYCOBACTERIUM ULCERANS (MACCALLUM)

VI. TRIPHENYL TERAZOLIUM CHLORIDE REDUCTION

Abstract

The in vitro dehydrogenase activity of M. ulcerans (PD) was examined by the TTC reduction method. The result of this experiment showed that the maximum of the TTC reduction was reached around the 30th day in case of culture at 33ª and on 36th day in case of culture at 37ª.
Gales⁽⁶⁾ mentioned two types of relationship between the cultivation time and the enzymatic activity of bacteria. In case of PD strain, the dehydrogenase activity and cultivation time appear to follow the curve of the second type of Gale.
TTC reducing power of PD strain was strongly inhibited by iodacetic acid, silver nitrate and copper sulphate, but it was only slightly inhibited by acetoaldehyde and glycerin.
The results of the present study indicate that M. ulcerans is very closely related to M. tuberculosis from the point of hcat rcsistancc, influence of substrates and that of streptomycin to dehydrogenase activity, but that both strains are somewhat different from the point of influence of isoniazid and of growth temperature on the dehydrogenase activity.