Role of serum in the intracellular killing of staphylococci in rabbit monocytes.

Shayegani, Mehdi G. (U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.), and Stuart Mudd. Role of serum in the intracellular killing of staphylococci in rabbit monocytes. J. Bacteriol. 91:1393-1398. 1966.-Although some intracellular killing occurs in rabbit monocytes with heated normal serum or even in monocytes washed three times with Hanks' solution and with staphylococci not exposed to serum, efficient killing of coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus cells in the mononuclear phagocytes of rabbits is shown to require heat-labile components of serum. The effect of serum in promoting phagocytosis and intracellular killing may be exhibited either by presensitization of the staphylococcal cells before contact with leukocytes or by the presence of serum in the phagocytic system. Under any conditions studied the rate of intracellular killing of S. aureus is very slow.