Partial characterisation of a soluble haemagglutinin from human diarrhoeal isolates of Aeromonas.

A soluble haemagglutinin has been identified in cell-free culture supernates of human diarrhoeal isolates of Aeromonas sobria, A. hydrophila and A. caviae. It was oligomeric; a major peak of haemagglutinating activity had an apparent mol. wt of 780,000 but there was haemagglutinating activity throughout the mol. wt range less than 40,000- greater than 10(6). Human group O, A and B, horse, rabbit, chicken and rat erythrocytes, but not those of sheep and cow, were agglutinated by the soluble haemagglutinin, in contrast to the cell-bound agglutinin. Agglutination was inhibited by fetuin, a complex glycoprotein, but not by simple sugars. The haemagglutinating activity was not affected by 0.5 M NaCl, dithiothreitol or the presence or absence of Ca++. It was unrelated to the haemolytic, enterotoxigenic and proteolytic activities present in cell-free extracts of A. sobria. All A. sobria, 73% of A. hydrophila and 68% of A. caviae strains tested produced this soluble haemagglutinin. A. caviae does not appear to be an enteric pathogen, therefore this soluble haemagglutinin alone is unlikely to be a virulence factor in Aeromonas spp.