Rapid and simple method for serotyping of staphylocoagulase using polystyrene latex particles.

The serotyping of staphylocoagulase is widely used in Japan. However, the conventional immunoassay based on neutralization of the antisera is so laborious and time-consuming that it is not widely used in the other countries. In order to overcome these drawbacks we developed a novel staphylocoagulase serotyping method based on a microplate format using polystyrene latex particles. Addition of latex particles promotes the formation of fibrin complexes, which represents a more rapidly and easily detected endpoint. For 83 strains, 90% were classified into serotypes within 3 h, and there was no discrepancy in the results between our method and the conventional method. These results indicate that the present microplate method is rapid, simple, and interpretable.