choleragen

choleragen

 [kol´er-ah-gen] the cholera enterotoxin; an extremely potent protein molecule elaborated by strains of Vibrio cholerae in the small intestine after ingestion of feces-contaminated water and food, where it acts on the epithelial cells to cause hypersecretion of chloride and bicarbonate and an outpouring of large quantities of isotonic fluid from the mucosal surface.

chol·er·a·gen

(kol'er-ă-jen), The exotoxin produced during growth in vitro of Cholera vibrio and responsible for the diarrhea seen in association with this infection. [cholera + G. -gen, producing]

choleragen

An obsolete term for one or more of the Vibrio cholerae exotoxins which have been implicated in the watery diarrhoea of cholera.