Affiliation:
1. Department of Oral Biology, New Jersey Dental School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey 07103
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans
is the etiologic agent of localized aggressive periodontitis, a rapidly progressing oral disease that occurs in adolescents.
A. actinomycetemcomitans
can also cause systemic disease, including infective endocarditis. In early work on
A. actinomycetemcomitans
workers concluded that this bacterium is not beta-hemolytic. More recent reports have suggested that
A. actinomycetemcomitans
does have the potential to be beta-hemolytic. While growing
A. actinomycetemcomitans
on several types of growth media, we noticed a beta-hemolytic reaction on media from one manufacturer. Beta-hemolysis occurred on Columbia agar from Accumedia with either sheep or horse blood, but not on similar media from other manufacturers. A surprising result was that mutants of
A. actinomycetemcomitans
defective for production of leukotoxin, a toxin that is reportedly highly specific for only human and primate white blood cells, are not beta-hemolytic. Purified leukotoxin was able to lyse sheep and human erythrocytes in vitro. This work showed that in contrast to the accepted view,
A. actinomycetemcomitans
leukotoxin can indeed destroy erythrocytes and that the production of this toxin results in beta-hemolytic colonies on solid medium. In light of these results, the diagnostic criteria for clinical identification of
A. actinomycetemcomitans
and potentially related bacteria should be reevaluated. Furthermore, in studies on
A. actinomycetemcomitans
leukotoxin workers should now consider this toxin's ability to destroy red blood cells.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Immunology,Microbiology,Parasitology
Cited by
73 articles.
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