Effects of penicillinase on bactericidal and complement activities in normal human serum.

During routine addition of penicillinase (beta-lactamase) to patients sera, we found that the capacity of some of these sera to kill serum-sensitive gram-negative organisms was significantly decreased. Further controlled studies showed that penicillinase decreased both the bactericidal activity of normal human sera and the total hemolytic activity (CH50) of complement in these sera. The decreased bactericidal activity correlated significantly (r = 0.57, P less than 0.05) with the reduction of CH50 in eight normal sera. These effects of penicillinase were time and temperature dependent. Measurement of individual complement component activities showed that penicillinase decreased the activity of C2, C4, and C3-C9, suggesting that the penicillinase preparation activated the classical pathway. These results cast doubts on the validity of bactericidal determinations when sera are pretreated with penicillinase.