[Preparation and properties of the staphylococcal toxin causing the toxic shock syndrome].

A method is proposed for isolation and purification of the staphylococcal toxin causing the toxic shock syndrome (TSS). The method includes three steps: aggregation of protein from the cultural filtrate of Staphylococcus aureus strain 1169 in the presence of 0.025% sodium hexametaphosphate at pH 3.0; gel filtration of the concentrated material on the sephadex G75; ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE 32 cellulose. The proposed method permits to obtain the purified biologically active preparation of toxin with the yield about 40%. The obtained preparations are homogeneous in polyacrylamide electrophoresis and as analyzed by immunochemical methods. The mol mass of the isolated protein is 24 kD, it is not immunologically identical to staphylococcal toxins A-D and is lethal for New Zealand white rabbits and chinchilla rabbits. Interferon inducing activity of the protein is identical to the one of staphylococcal enterotoxin type A.