[The toxin-containing filtrates from the culture broths of clinical strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae]

Abstract

Composition as well as toxicity and antigenicity of toxin-including filtrates of 6 circulating strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae, isolated in 1992-1994 in the city of Kharkiv have been studied as compared with production strain PW-8. It is shown that toxicity of filtrates of circulating strains was analogous of toxicity of the strain PW-8 (100 dlm) or lower (45 dlm). Antigenicity of four strains which was expressed in if units proved to be higher than that of the production strains and it was considerably higher in two strains isolated from adults who died from diphtheria. The methods of gel-filtration and immunoprecipitation were used to establish differences between strains in their capacity to preferential accumulation of different molecular forms of toxin under stationary cultivation.