The in vitro kinetics of muramic acid-alanine bond hydrolysis and pneumococcal purpura-producing principle generation by incubation of Streptococcus pneumoniae cell wall preparations with the bacterial autolysin N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase were similar. The generated purpura-producing principle preparation had a weight-average molecular weight of ca. 2.6 x 107 and possessed the glycan and teichoic acid constituents of the pneumococcal cell wall. The results support the idea that the

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... coccal purpuraproducing principle is a high-molecular-weight, glycan-teichoic acid fragment released by hydrolysis of the muramic acid-alanine bonds in the bacterial cell wall.