Receptors for erythrogenic toxin A of Streptococcus pyogenes on human peripheral blood lymphocytes and other blood...

The binding of erythrogenic toxin A (ETA) of group A streptococci on human peripheral blood cells was demonstrated light- and electronmicroscopically by labelling with ETA-gold. Double labelling experiments of lymphocytes and the use of purified T-lymphocytes revealed that the ETA-receptor was confined to T cells. Besides lymphocytes, monocytes and especially granulocytes and thrombocytes showed a significant ETA-gold labelling. The lymphocyte ETA-receptor was found to be not sensitive to trypsin and neuraminidase and was not identical with the receptors for concanavalin A, Helix pomatia-lectin and sheep erythrocytes.