Delayed hypersensitivity to Staphylococcus aureus in mice: characterization of a membrane immunogen involved in delayed hypersensitivity.

Staphylococcal membrance proteins are potent initiators of delayed hypersensitivity following multiple subcutaneous injections of viable organisms. When the membranes are separated by exclusion chromatography they separate into three distinct fractions, one of which was responsible for the elicitation of footpad (FP) reactivity in sensitized mice. The active immunogen was characterized as a glycoprotein having a molecular weight of approximately 15,600 Daltons, with the peptide and carbohydrate moieties linked by covalent bonding. In vitro spleen cell stimulation and macrophage migration inhibition studies revealed that the active FP fraction was also the immunogen involved in these responses. The immunogenic fraction also had mitogenic properties as evidenced by the stimulation of non-sensitized spleen cells. These data characterize a glycoprotein present in Staphylococcus aureus cell membrane which is both immunogenic and mitogenic and is the principal immunogen responsible for the early delayed hypersensitivity response.