A novel method for rapid production and purification of exfoliative toxin A of Staphylococcus aureus.

The exfoliative toxins of Staphylococcus aureus are the causative agents of the scalded-skin syndrome. Previously described methods of toxin production and purification require large quantities of culture medium, take a long time and often produce low yields of toxin. A novel method of toxin production and purification using a dialysis sac to separate the culture medium from the staphylococci is described. This method produces up to 12 mg of crude toxin per ml of bacterial cell culture bathing the surface of the dialysis sac within 36 h and almost 10 mg of purified toxin per ml of cell culture within 3 days, in contrast to previous procedures that took over a week to produce 0.1-1.0 mg ml(-1) crude toxin and less than 0.01 mg ml(-1) purified toxin. This rapid method of toxin production should speed up future research into the pathogenesis of the staphylococcal scalded-skin syndrome.