ACTION OF PLAGUE MURINE TOXIN ON MITOCHONDRIA FROM RESISTANT AND SUSCEPTIBLE ANIMALS

Kadis, Solomon (Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pa.), Samuel J. Ajl, and James H. Rust, Jr. Action of plague murine toxin on mitochondria from resistant and susceptible animals. J. Bacteriol. 86:757-765. 1963.-Purified murine Pasteurella pestis toxin inhibited the respiration of liver mitochondria isolated from both the rat and the rabbit. Toxin had little or no effect on the respiration of rabbit sarcosomes, but when they were disrupted with either sodium deoxycholate or sonic vibration their respiration was inhibited. The respiration of heart mitochondria from rats immunized with toxoid-adjuvant mixtures was inhibited only slightly by the toxin, whereas the respiration of liver mitochondria from immunized rats was inhibited to the same degree as that from nonimmunized animals. Toxin caused the heart mitochondria of the rat to swell, but had little or no effect on the heart mitochondria of the rabbit. Also, brain mitochondria were not swollen by the toxin.