Highly-purified Helicobacter pylori LPS preparations induce weak inflammatory reactions and utilize Toll-like receptor 2 complex but not Toll-like receptor 4 complex.

Helicobacter pylori is recognized as an etiologic agent of gastroduodenal diseases. Among toxic substances produced by H. pylori, LPS exhibits extremely low endotoxic activity as compared to the typical LPSs, such as that produced by Escherichia coli. We found that the LPS-low-responder stomach cancer cell line MKN28, which expresses Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) at extremely low levels, showed similar levels of interleukin-8 (IL-8) induction by H. pylori or E. coli LPS preparations. Weak IL-8 induction by H. pylori LPS preparations was suppressed by expression of a dominant negative mutant of TLR2 but not of TLR4. Data from luciferase reporter analysis indicated that cotransfection of TLR2-TLR1 or TLR2-TLR6 was required for the activation induced by H. pylori LPS preparations. In conclusion, the H. pylori LPS preparations significantly induce an inflammatory reaction via the receptor complex containing TLR2-TLR1 or TLR2-TLR6 but not that containing TLR4. The TLR2-TLR1 complex was preferentially recognized by the H. pylori LPS preparations over the TLR2-TLR6 complex. Whereas the magnitude of response to H. pylori LPS preparation was markedly less than that to E. coli LPS preparation in LPS-high-responder cells strongly expressing TLR4, it was comparable to that of E. coli LPS in low-responder cells expressing negligible amount of TLR4.