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EDTA AND PENICILLIN RESISTANCE OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS —A REEVALUATION
Author(s) -
Rawal B. D.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1971.tb87590.x
Subject(s) - penicillin , staphylococcus aureus , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , minimum inhibitory concentration , staphylococcus , biology , antibiotics , bacteria , genetics
In describing the potentiation of penicillin by EDTA for the inhibition of penicillin‐resistant staphylococci, Rawal (1969) reported lower inhibitory concentrations in EDTA broth than in nutrient broth inoculated from a common inoculum. It was then conjectured that the EDTA treatment possibly removed the genetic material concerned with penicillinase synthesis from the organism. Later Boyd and Judis (1970) reported that EDTA interfered with the formation of penicillinase in staphylococci by chelating with iron. Gross and Holzman (1970), who were apparently unaware of the work of Boyd and Judis (1970), arrived at a similar conclusion, although they attributed the interference of penicillinase synthesis to the removal of magnesium. In spite of this knowledge, Gross and Holzman (1970) attributed the reported inhibition of resistant staphylococci by the penicillin‐EDTA combination (Rawal, 1969) to technical variations involving the inoculum and the test medium. With regard to the inoculum they state: