Extracellular toxins of pseudomonas aeruginosa. Pt. 4

A sensitive and specific solid phase radioimmunoassay (RIA) for detection of the elastase (Ela) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) was developed and the RIA was used to assay 10 PA strains of various origin and serotype. A great strain variability of Ela production was found which different from 94.1 to 0.1 μg per ml of culture supernatant fluid (CSF). The Ela and alkaline protease (AP) concentrations were converted to proteolytic activity and combined. The sum of the calculated enzymatic values of Ela and AP correlated well with the experimentally determined values of total proteolytic activity of the CSF. (orig.)