[Serological analysis of coagulase-negative staphylococci: study of characteristic agglutinogens in type strains of the nine species individualized by Schleifer and Kloos (author's transl)].

The occurrence of characteristic agglutinogens has been searched for in the type strains of the following species: Staphylococcus xylosus, S. cohnii, S. epidermidis, S. capitis, S. saprophyticus, S. warneri, S. haemolyticus, S. hominis and S. simulans. Serotyping of these nine strains and study of their antisera have been carried out with formalin-treated and autoclaved bacteria. It has been shown that the characteristic agglutinogens of S. epidermidis and S. haemolyticus were respectively identical to the agglutinogens previously described in the coagulase-negative type strain 52.186 and in the S. aureus type strain 18. Characteristic agglutinogens have been found in each of the other seven type strains. Agglutinogens found in S. xylosus and S. saprophyticus are thermolabile, the corresponding absorbed sera reacting only with the formalin-treated homologous strain. Concerning S. cohnii, S. capitis, S. hominis and S. simulans, their absorbed sera reacting both with formalin-treated and autoclaved homologous strains, the observed reactions can be accounted either by one thermostable agglutinogen or by two characteristic agglutinogens, one thermostable, the other thermolabile. In S. warneri, only one thermostable agglutinogen has been characterized, the specificity of the reaction observed between the absorbed S. warneri antiserum and the homologous formalin-treated strain having to be confirmed. The use for serotyping of absorbed sera prepared against the type strains of the species S. xylosus, S. cohnii, S. capitis, S. saprophyticus, S. warneri, S. hominis and S. simulans should permit to improve the individualization of coagulase-negative staphylococci.