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B M SULTZER

Publications and source records attributed to B M SULTZER.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Dissociation of the biological properties of bacterial endotoxin by chemical modification of the molecule.

The preparation and properties of three fractions isolated from the acetylation of endotoxin by acetic anhydride in the presence of anhydrous sodium acetate are described. One fraction is of primary interest for it allows the experimental dissociation of some of the myriad biological activities of the parent endotoxin. Pyrogenicity and acute toxicity are markedly reduced, and ability to confer tolerance to the lethality and pyrogenicity of homologous or heterologous endotoxins is equivalently diminished. In contrast, this acetylated derivative retains the ability to stimulate phagocytosis and, as shown in the following paper, to enhance non-specific host resistance to infection. Detoxification is reversible, the original toxicity and pyrogenicity being recovered following mild saponification. The implications of the findings are discussed, and it is suggested that the observed dissociation of biological properties is explained neither by deacetylation of the derivative in vivo nor by the observable alteration of physical state in the gross.

Endotoxins↗

The stimulation of non-specific host resistance to infection by chemically modified endotoxin.

An acetylated derivative prepared from Salmonella typhosa O-901 endotoxin has been found to retain the ability to stimulate non-specific host resistance to a variety of bacterial infections. Relative to the parent endotoxin, the derivative has been reduced in the gross in its pyrogenicity to rabbits and lethality to mice. With the use of this chemically modified preparation under a variety of conditions, the direct dissociation of the toxic properties of endotoxin from its protective capacity appears evident. In young male mice, the endotoxin and its derivative produced a leucocytosis but no leucopenia. However, no direct correlation could be found with the level of the peripheral white blood cells and resistance to infection with Escherichia coli. Furthermore, under the conditions employed, passive transfer of early resistance to infection by serum or plasma was not detectable.

Animals↗

Oxidative activity of psychrophilic and mesophilic bacteria on saturated fatty acids.

Sultzer, Barnet M. (Michigan State University, East Lansing). Oxidative activity of psychrophilic and mesophilic bacteria on saturated fatty acids. J. Bacteriol. 82:492-497. 1961.-Comparisons were made of the capacity of representative psychrophilic pseudomonads and of the mesophilic Serratia marcescens and Sarcina flava to oxidize sodium salts of fatty acids at temperatures ranging from 7.5 to 40 C. Conventional manometric techniques were employed to determine respiration of whole cells and of cell-free extracts of the bacteria. Reaction velocity constants were measured with whole cell preparations on octanoate at temperatures between 7.5 and 40 C. Temperature characteristic (mu) values, obtained by an Arrhenius plot of these reaction velocity constants, revealed a dissimilarity in response of the different types of organisms to the influence of decreasing temperature. The psychrophiles exhibited significantly lower mu values while oxidizing octanoate at much higher rates throughout the same temperature range. Changes in the slopes of the Arrhenius plots at various temperatures emphasized the differences in mu values between the psychrophiles and mesophiles. Extracts of these organisms were tested for their cofactor requirements and all were found to require adenosine triphosphate and coenzyme A to activate the octanoate oxidase system. Thus, in this experimental system, differences between these types of bacteria in their oxidative response to a saturated fatty acid cannot be explained by the initial activating mechanism involved. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the growth and physiological activity of psychrophiles at low temperatures.

Bacteria↗