Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) has been shown in the past to be a potent T cell stimulant in mouse or man. The toxin acts as a superantigen that is, it binds to class II MHC proteins and, as such a complex, stimulates T cells bearing particular V beta s as part of their receptors. The toxin also has several pathological effects, causing, in mice, rapid weight loss, thymus atrophy, immunosup...

To seek information on the role of Fas in negative selection, we examined subsets of thymocytes from normal neonatal mice versus Fas-deficient lpr/lpr mice injected with graded doses of antigen. In normal mice, injection of 1-100 microg of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) induced clonal elimination of SEB-reactive Vbeta8+ cells at the level of the semi-mature population of HSAhi CD4+ 8- cells...

Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) belong to a large group of bacterial exotoxins that cause severe immunopathologies, especially when delivered as an aerosol. SEs elicit the release of lethal amounts of cytokines by binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II and cross-linking susceptible T-cell receptors. Efforts to develop effective therapeutic strategies to protect against SEs...

The real-time detection of trace concentrations of biological toxins requires significant improvement of the detection methods from those reported in the literature. To develop a highly sensitive and selective detection device it is necessary to determine the optimal measuring conditions for the electrochemical sensor in three domains: time, frequency and polarization potential. In this work we...

The production of staphylococcal enterotoxin A and staphylococcal enterotoxin B was investigated in S. aureus isolates obtained from milk of clinically healthy sheep. In comparison with valid standard (up to 1. 10 CFU. ml), the S. aureus counts were higher in 36 of the total number of 46 positive milk samples (ranging from 1.2. 10 to 8.2. 10 CFU. ml). Six (13.0%) of the 46 isolates were enterot...

Superantigens are immune-stimulatory toxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus, which are able to interact with host immune receptors to induce a massive release of cytokines, causing toxic shock syndrome and possibly death. In this article, we present the x-ray structure of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) in complex with its receptors, the TCR and MHC class II, forming a ternary complex. The...

The aim of this work was to organize the first proficiency test (PT) dedicated to staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) detection in milk and buffer solutions. This paper describes the organization of the PT trial according to EN ISO 17043 requirements. Characterization of the SEB stock solution was performed using SDS-PAGE and SE-specific ELISA, and amino acid analysis was used to assign its prot...

An excellent-quality set of images of the 1993 Jovian South Equatorial Belt (SEB) revival are shown and discussed. For the first time, this major SEB event was recorded since the very early stages of its development to its end at a variety of wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Our analysis supports, at least for the locus B, the Reese theory of the pre...

Injection of the T cell mitogens concanavalin A (Con A) into nonsensitized or of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) into D-galactosamine (GalN)-sensitized mice is known to cause fulminant liver failure via a cytokine response syndrome with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) as the plvotal mediator. We examined in vivo whether the phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors motapizone (PDE3-selective) and...

Staphylococcus aureus produces enterotoxins, which are causative agents of foodborne intoxications. Enterotoxins are single-chain polypeptides and have a molecular weight of about 26-28 kDa. The consumption of food contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins results in the onset of acute gastroenteritis within 2-6 h. The objective of this study was the development of a new method for t...