Latent Effects of Haemolytic Agents

SUMMARY: Although staphylococcal β-haemolysin does not lyse rabbit erythrocytes, it is absorbed by these cells and produces a prelytic change which can be recognized by facilitation of other haemolytic reactions. Combination of two haemolytic processes serves in general to detect latent effects of lytic agents or to accelerate their quantitative evaluation. β-Haemolysin apparently causes the same primary change in sheep and rabbit erythrocytes, namely enzymic splitting of sphingomyelin and related compounds, but only the sheep cells, when subjected to cooling, are able to undergo a second reaction, responsible for the release of haemoglobin.