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Why Antibody Inhibits Vascular Clearance of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B¹

Department of Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32601

Abstract

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B is a purified protein exotoxin, the vascular clearance of which is inhibited by specific burro antitoxin. As the amount of passively administered antitoxin is increased, the clearance of the toxin decreases. An explanation for this paradoxical effect of antibody on clearance was sought by examining the clearance of the toxin-antitoxin complex simultaneously yet independently of the clearance of the unbound toxin. By means of gel filtration, the binding of enterotoxin was measured and correlated with the in vivo effect of antibody on clearance. With increasing antibody concentration, there was a progressive change from rapidly removed unbound toxin to a more slowly removed toxin-antitoxin complex. Vascular clearance of the toxin in the normal animal was chiefly by means of glomerular filtration, and this mechanism appeared to be blocked when the toxin existed as an antigen-antibody complex.

Footnotes

This work supported by Contract DADA 17-68-C-8125 from the U.S. Army Research and Development Command.