title: Enterotoxigenicity of colonising coliform bacteria in tropical sprue and blind-loop syndrome.
abstract: The enterotoxigenicity of strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter cloacae, and Escherichia coli, which represented the predominant coliform species isolated from the jejunum of 12 patients with tropical sprue and 5 with the blind-loop syndrome, was quantitatively assessed in terms of the ability of toxin preparations to induce water secretion as assayed by in-vivo perfusion in the rat jejunum. All 12 patients with sprue harboured 1 or more highly toxigenic strains--14 of the 16 strains isolated from this group produced heat-labile and/or heat-stable toxins which were as potent as toxins derived from strains isolated from persons with acute diarrhoea and documented as toxigenic. None of the 9 strains isolated from patients with the blind-loop syndrome produced potent toxins. This difference between the coliform bacteria in sprue and the blind-loop syndrome probably accounts, at least partly, for the different intestinal response in these two disorders to contamination by these organisms.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001765:Blind Loop Syndrome / Q000382:microbiology*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology; D004754:Enterobacter / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D007583:Jejunum / Q000382:microbiology; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D051381:Rats; D013182:Sprue, Tropical / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004768:Enterotoxins