Toxin production by Vibrio mimicus strains isolated from human and environmental sources in Bangladesh.
Vibrio mimicus has recently been isolated from aquatic environments of Bangladesh. A total of 125 of 300 environmental isolates, representing various biotypes, and 19 human isolates were tested for enteropathogenicity by using several models. Less than 1% of the environmental isolates and slightly more than 10% of the clinical isolates produced cholera toxin-like toxin. A significant percentage of the environmental isolates (25%) and of the human isolates (74%) induced fluid accumulation in ligated rabbit ileal loops. One environmental strain produced heat-stable toxin-like enterotoxin, whereas all of the human isolates did not. V. mimicus strains were divided into the following three groups on the basis of their activity in various toxin assays: (i) organisms which produce a heat-labile enterotoxin immunobiologically similar to cholera toxin, (ii) organisms which produce a heat-stable enterotoxin-like toxin, and (iii) organisms whose whole-cell cultures have some activity characteristic of heat-labile toxin (e.g., fluid accumulation in ligated rabbit ileal loops and positive permeability factor) but are not positive by the GM1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. One isolate from this group was able to elicit these results with cell-free culture filtrates. There was no correlation of biotype with toxic activity of V. mimicus isolates.
Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
M A
MA
Chowdhury
K M
KM
Aziz
B A
BA
Kay
Z
Z
Rahim
D000818:Animals; D001459:Bangladesh; D033364:Decapoda; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D011817:Rabbits; D014733:Vibrio / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
D004768:Enterotoxins