Lack of Relationship Between Sialic Acid Content, Toxicity, and Lethality of Escherichia coli.

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Abstract
The lethality of 13 E. coli strains, each of a different serological type, was compared in mice and was found to differ greatly. These differences could not be attributed to differences in heat stable toxins nor to presence or absence of sialic acid in the cells. E. coli strains containing sialic acid gradually lost most, if not all, of this monosaccharide after 24 hours growth in culture, but no corresponding decrease in lethality occurred. Cell-free lysates of E. coli containing bound sialic acid were toxic for mice, and when injected in combination with epinephrine produced hemorrhagic lesions in rabbits, but no more so than did comparable lysates from older cells of the same strain which contained no sialic acid.

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