[Heat-stable hemolysin of Pseudomonas aeruginosa]

Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces at least two distinct hemolysins: heat-labile hemolysin, which is known as phospholipase C, and heat-stable hemolysin, which is considered to be a glycolipid but its true nature is not found yet. Cellophane agar plate method was applied to hasten and enhance the hemolysin production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the hemolysin obtained by this method was examined biochemically. This heat-stable hemolysin consisted of two major acidic glycolipids. One was considered to be the same glycolipid as that obtained by the same method of Jarvis and Johnson's from the peptone-glycerol culture filtrate of the same organism, which is composed of two moles of rhamnose and two moles of beta-hydroxy decanoic acid, and the other one being a glycolipid composed of one mole of rhamnose and two moles of beta-hydroxy decanoic acid. By this method, the rhamnolipid with one mole of rhamnose was produced more than the rhamnolipid with two moles of rhamnose, and they were produced in the same ratio from the first to fifth culture day. From the examinations of hemolytic activities of the hydrolyzed products of these glycolipids, the hemolysis producing moiety of the hemolysin was considered to be the dimer of beta-hydroxy decanoic acid contained in the glycolipid molecule. Hemolytic activities of these glycolipids are regarded as their detergent like effects. Since these activities are interfered by small amount of serum protein, their pathogenic role would not be important in vitro. However, their interaction with other toxic substances produced by this organism would be subject to be solved.