Alternative procedure for the purification of the heat-stable enterotoxin of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli pathogenic for calves

A method for purification of the heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains (C1444 and B41) pathogenic for calves and some physiochemical properties of the ST are described. The method involved ultrafiltration on PM-10 and UM-2 Diaflo membranes, acetone fractionation, ion-exchange chromatography on AG 1-X2, chromatofocusing and a combination of hydrophobic interaction chromatography on octyl-Sepharose CL-4B and gel-permeation on Bio-Gel P-2. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulphate of fluorescamine-labeled purified, reduced and alkylated ST preparations revealed a single band with approximate molecular masses of 2500 and 2200 for the C1444 and B41 STs, respectively. For the C1444 ST, the final purification achieved was approximately 27,000-fold on the basis of absorbance at 280 nm per mouse effective dose. However, it was 2000-fold when calculated on the basis of mg protein per effective dose (5 ng). Amino acid composition of the C1444 ST was found to be different from that of the B41 ST suggesting that the ST produced by bovine isolates may be heterogeneous in their structure.