Partial purification and characterization of an escherichia coli toxic factor that induces morphological cell alterations

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Abstract
A factor produced by several strains of E. coli isolated from enteritis-affected children produced a necrotizing effect on rabbit skin and striking morphological alterations on Chinese hamster ovary, African green monkey kidney Vero and human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells. The same strains had hemolytic activity on sheep erythrocytes. The toxic, cell-altering factor was different from heat-labile and heat-stable enterotoxins and from Vero toxin. The main effect induced by the isolated factor on cultured cells was the formation of large multinucleated cells. The partial purification achieved suggests that the same factor (most likely a protein with a MW of 70,000-80,000) is responsible for toxic and cell-altering activities; whereas a different molecular species is responsible for hemolytic activity.