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Hypersensitiveness to Diphtheria Bacilli

A Hypersensitive Reaction Associated with Toxin Content of Test Material

From the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Nashville, Tennessec

Abstract

The present example of diphtheria bacterial hypersensitiveness agrees with the previous examples in that it is manifested by an immediate skin reaction and in that the capacity for the reaction can be passively transferred. It differs, however, in that the individual is particularly reactive with a heat (60°C.) labile product not involved in the reactions of the previous diphtheria-sensitive persons. This product is apparently contained in effective concentration only in the unheated culture filtrates of toxicogenic diphtheria bacilli and not in the filtrates of nontoxicogenic strains nor in solutions of material derived from the washed bacterial cells. If it is not toxin, it is a hitherto unrecognized diphtheria bacterial product that possesses a degree of lability not usually encountered among the bacterial substances associated with hypersensitive reactions.

The results are discussed in respect to the possibility that the described reactions may represent an example of true hypersensitiveness of man to diphtheria toxin.