Structural and immunochemical characterization of the O-haptens of Brucella abortus lipopolysaccharides from strains 19 and 2308.

The O-haptens of the major fraction (f5A) of B. abortus (Strains 2308 and 19) membrane bound smooth lipopolysaccharide (sLPS) were prepared by hydrolysis of f5A native sLPS in 1% acetic acid at 100 degrees C for 2 h. After hydrolysis, O-haptens were separated from Lipid A-protein complex by centrifugation, and from small fragments by ultrafiltration of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) 1.0 X 10(3). These carbohydrate haptens were identified by precipitin-inhibition assay and further fractionated by both membrane filtration and dialysis. The size distributions of carbohydrate haptens of endotoxins (f5A) ranged from oligosaccharides up to polysacchandes of 1.0 X 10(4) MWCO. Three major fractions of MWCO 8.0-10.0 X 10(3), 3.5-5.0 X 10(3) and less than 1.0 X 10(3) from both strains 2308 and 19 contained more than 85% of the total immunoactive materials. These fractions of haptens were subjected to composition, proton and 13C NMR analysis and were found to be a homopolymer of alpha 1----2 linked, 4,5-dideoxy-4-formamido-D-mannose (N-formylperosamine), which is identical to O-haptens of B. abortus strain 119.3 and Yersinia enterocolitica serotype 0:9 and similar to Vibrio cholerae 569B (INABA). Fractions of these haptens exhibited similar inhibitory reactivities in a precipitin-inhibition assay as expressed as mumoles of monosaccharide of anhydro-N-formyl perosamine. They were about 480 times as active as Me alpha----DMan or DMan.