Resistance to Cephalothin in Vivo Associated with Increased Cephalosporinase Production

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Abstract
Microbial resistance to penicillins or cephalosporins is often a consequence of enzymatic hydrolysis of the beta-lactam bond of the antibiotic. The enzymes involved have been designated collectively as beta-lactamases since, with few exceptions, they attack both penicillins and cephalosporins but often at very different rates (1). In spite of this designation, the specificity of these enzymes for the beta-lactam bond is not complete, for some of them may split certain simple peptide bonds (2). In individual bacterial species the degree of resistance conferred by a beta-lactamase is related to the enzymatic activity per cell. Accordingly a genetic mutation that led