Strategies for the treatment of endotoxemia: significance of the acute-phase response.

Shock during gram-negative bacterial sepsis continues to be a major clinical problem. Its development is assumed to be due to the release of toxic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from the bacterial cell wall. Consequently, research efforts have turned toward treatment to counteract the effects of LPS. Possibilities include methods based on the blocking of over-exuberant intrinsic host responses to LPS and on the neutralization of LPS with pharmacologic agents or passively infused antibodies directed at different parts of the molecule. Evidence exists to support the concept that some LPS-induced (acute-phase) host responses may play a role in protection against LPS.