[Hemolysis and hemolytic interactions of bacteria]

The review contains data on haemolytically active bacteria important in medical microbiology, human or veterinary. Attention is paid to haemolytically active bacterial metabolites, especially those which produce synergistic or antagonistic haemolytic reactions above all with staphylococcal haemolysins alpha, beta and delta, with corynebacterial phospholipase D, with rhodococcal equi factor and with the haemolysin of Dermatophilus congolensis. The general usage of the term "CAMP factor" for all manifestations of haemolytic interactions is criticized. Descriptions of haemolytic activities are supplemented by a synoptical table and most of them are documented by photographs.