Purification of a heat labile dermonecrotic toxin from culture fluid of Pasteurella multocida

A highly pure heat-labile dermonecrotic toxin (DNT) of Pasteurella multocida was isolated from bacterium-free broth culture fluid. The protocol for the isolation included the following steps: ammonium sulphate precipitation, gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography and preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). About 1 mg of purified DNT was recovered from 3 l of broth culture fluid. The final product was toxic for embryonic bovine lung (EBL) cells, lethal for mice, dermonecrotic in the guinea pig skin test and inactivated by heating at 56°c. The recovery of biological activity was about 5% that of the original culture fluid and the specific activity had increased about 4000 times. After sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-PAGE and silver staining a single band appeared, indicating that the purified DNT was free from contaminating proteins. The molecular weight of the toxin was approximately 125 000 daltons. The minimal toxic dose of DNT protein for embryonic bovine lung cells was about 2 ng, the minimal dermonecrotic dose in the guinea pig skin test was about 80 ng and the 50% lethal dose for mice about 300 ng.