Membrane damage by staphylococcal alpha-toxin to different types of cultured mammalian cell.
Staphylococcal alpha-toxin was shown to be more membrane-damaging to epithelial-like cells than to neuroblasts or normal fibroblasts. Mouse adrenal cortex tumor (Y1Ac) epithelioid cells and human embryonal lung (MRC-5) fibroblasts were used for further comparison. Alpha-toxin was considerably more cytotoxic to adrenal cells than to fibroblasts. This difference did not depend on the presence fibronectin on the fibroblast surface, or on a general difference in the response to other membrane-damaging hemolytic toxins and detergents. Incubation of adrenal cells at 0 degree C with alpha-toxin induced some irreversible change, and membrane damage and a cytotoxic effect developed upon further incubation in toxin-free growth medium. In fibroblasts the membrane damage progressed slowly and only in the continued presence of the toxin. Toxin-induced damage to transport and synthetic functions in fibroblasts was reversible upon removal of the toxin after prolonged exposure. It is proposed that adrenal cells may carry a cell-surface receptor to which alpha-toxin binds specifically, thereby allowing the toxin to exert its cell damaging effect.
D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002460:Cell Line; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000187:drug effects; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins; D006801:Humans; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000196:embryology; D008168:Lung / Q000196:embryology; D051379:Mice; D009447:Neuroblastoma; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010053:Ovary; D011247:Pregnancy
D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins; D009498:Neurotoxins; C021091:staphylococcal alpha-toxin