[Experimental studies on the pathogenicity of tetanus spores regarding eucaryotic cell systems (author's transl)].

Abstract

After injection of known numbers of viable tumour cells admixed with tetanus spores into the subcutaneous tissue between the shoulder blades the sigmoidal tetanus lethality curves of mice can be quantitatively analysed following the underlying growth of tetanus clostridia and tumour cells. We suggest that the "driving force" for exponential clostridial growth and toxin synthesis are oxygen-consuming clones of tumour cells. Our experimental data are in good accordance with a stochastic mathematical model which allows for computing the cloning probability of one single spore on the basis of a 1-mitosis-1-clostridium division-principle.