Some Nutritional Requirements for Enterotoxin Production by Clostridium perfringens NCTC 8239 in the Ligated Intestinal Loop of Rabbit

Abstract

Both protein and carbohydrate were necessary for sporulation and enterotoxin production of Clostridium perfringens NCTC 8239 in the ligated intestine of the rabbit. The administration of 10⁸ vegetative cells suspended in 2ml of skim milk was confirmed to induce positive reactions consistently. However, skim milk dialysate, which contained the same amount of protein as the 10% skim milk, had no effect. An addition of 10% lactose to the skim milk dialysate restored the effect. Proteose peptone (Difco), peptone for toxin production (Mikuni), meat extract (Wako) and purified casein (Merck) could replace the skim milk dialysate.
In addition to lactose, raffinose and fructose were effective as carbon sources whereas galactose, sucrose and glucose were less effective. Enterotoxin was not produced in the ligated intestine when the vegetative cells were administered together with any one of these carbohydrate or protein sources alone.