Transfer by bone marrow cells of increased natural resistance to Klebsiella pneumoniae induced by lipopolysaccharide in genetically deficient C3H/He mice.

In a previous study we demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide failed to elicit nonspecific resistance in C3H/He lipopolysaccharide low-responder mice against Klebsiella infection in contrast to its activity in a closely related histocompatible high-responder subline, C3HeB/Fe. Complete restoration of lipopolysaccharide-induced protection against 10(5) Klebsiella was obtained in the present study by transferring bone marrow from high-responder mice to the highly deficient C3H/He mice. The ability of C3H/He mice to clear and destroy bacteria in 5 h was also transferred by C3HeB/Fe marrow cells. In contrast, when high-responder C3HeB/Fe mice were reconstituted with low-responder bone marrow, the clearance and destruction of K. pneumoniae were similar to what is observed in the high-responder strain, but survival was only temporary. Collectively, our data show that the failure of C3H/He mice to respond to lipopolysaccharide with nonspecific immunity is due to a defect in two types of bone-marrow-derived cells--radioresistant and radiosensitive.