Vaginal isolates of Staphylococcus aureus associated with toxic shock syndrome

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus has been isolated from vaginal fluids of women with toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a multisystem disease with onset usually during menses. A total of 15 vaginal isolates of S. aureus from TSS patients were compared with 18 vaginal isolates from women without TSS. Phenotypic traits which were significantly more frequent in the TSS group of strains than in the non-TSS group were arsenate resistance, proteolysis of hemoglobin, reduced hemolysis of sheep blood in agar medium, and lack of lethality of culture filtrates for chicken embryos and rabbits. In addition, isoelectric focusing of ethanol extracts of culture filtrates showed differences between the two groups in the occurrence of two proteins. All hemolytic and chicken embryo-lethal strains (3 TSS strains and 14 non-TSS strains) produced an extracellular protein with an isoelectric point of 8.6. In contrast, all TSS strains, but only one-half of non-TSS strains, released a protein with an isoelectric point of 7.0 and an apparent subunit molecular weight of 22,000.

Toxic shock syndrome.

“…Subsequent data have confirmed the association of clinical TSS with certain strains of S. aureus (3,7,47,54,153). The majority of cases reported since 1978 have been associated with focal S. aureus wound infections or menstruation and tampon usage with S. aureus isolated from the patients' vaginal cultures.…”

“…The majority of cases reported since 1978 have been associated with focal S. aureus wound infections or menstruation and tampon usage with S. aureus isolated from the patients' vaginal cultures. These S. aureus strains have characteristic phenotypes which differ from those of S. aureus strains in the general population (7,173). Further microbiologic evaluations of these strains have demonstrated at least one (and probably more) toxin (12,23,53,149) which in certain (but not all) animal models reproduces many of the symptoms of TSS (127,129,151,152,165).…”

Culture Filtrate of Cryptococcus neoformans var. gattii (CneF) as a Novel Anti‐Inflammatory Compound in the Treatment of Experimental Septic Arthritis

“…Enterotoxin production was previously evaluated using toxin detection kits (Denka Seiken Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan) for staphylococcal enterotoxins A±D (SEA±SED) and TSST-1. Furthermore, TSST-1 production was tested using an isoelectric focusing procedure [21,22]. In the beginning of the experiment, the bacterial solution was thawed and washed in physiological saline.…”

Association of toxic shock toxin-1 determinant with a heterologous insertion at multiple loci in the Staphylococcus aureus chromosome

“…Typically, TSS strains of S. aureus are different from staphylococci isolated from asymptomatic carriers or from individuals with non-TSS staphylococcal infections. TSS strains are predominantly lysed by group I phage types 29/ 52/80, are generally plasmid free, are resistant to penicillin and heavy metals, are more proteolytic, are more susceptible to bacteriocins, are less hemolytic, and are less pigmented (1,2,18,20,36,37). Additionally, we have recently observed that most TSS strains are tryptophan dependent, whereas most non-TSS strains are not (12).…”

“…Epidemiologic and laboratory data (3, 28,31) have established Staphylococcus aureus as the cause of toxic shock syndrome (TSS). A specific staphylococcal protein, TSS toxin-1 (TSST-1) (4), is associated with more than 90% of S. aureus isolates obtained from women with menstrual TSS (2,10) and with 62% of isolates from women with nonmenstrual TSS (29). Baboons and rabbits inoculated with TSST-1producing strains (5,10,13) or purified TSST-1 (27) develop signs of illness similar to those of human TSS, which can be prevented by administration of serum with anti-TSST-1 antibodies (5).…”