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The role of toxic shock syndrome Toxin-1 and Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A in the pathogenesis of toxic shock syndrome Chang, Alex Hongsheng

Abstract

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a multisystem disease associated with S. aureus infection. Toxic shock syndrometoxin-1 (TSST-1) is implicated in the majority but not all cases. We have previously demonstrated that sero \conversion to staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) is also more prevalent in TSS than in non-TSS cases, suggesting its possible role in TSS. Previous studies have demonstrated that TSST-1 and SEA are super antigens, which bind directly to class II molecules on antigen presenting cells, and stimulates T cells bearing specific VB sequences. Whether there are direct binding sites for TSST-1 and SEA on human resting T cells remains unclear. Three approaches were taken to further examine the role of TSST-1 and SEA in the pathogenesis of TSS: a) to detect TSST-1 and staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) in the culture supernatants of S. aureus by ELISA method, in order to study the production of TSST-1and SEA among 350 isolates of S. aureus collected from TSS patients and other individuals; b) to characterize the distribution of these isolates by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis at 19 enzyme chromosomal loci; and c) to characterize receptor-mediated binding of TSST-1 and SEA to human T cells, to confirm whether there are direct TSST-1and SEA binding sites on resting T lymphocytes, to study the [More abstract follows]

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