Effect of lipid A-associated protein and lipid A on the expression of lipopolysaccharide activity. I. Immunological activity.

A detailed investigation has been made of the contribution of the various chemical moieties of bacterial endotoxins, namely lipid A-associated protein (LAP), lipid A and O-antigen polysaccharide to a number of the immunological activities of these active bacterial products. Advantage was taken of the availability of antigenically identical endotoxin preparations from Escherichia coli 0111:B4 which differed greatly in their content of LAP and/or lipid A. The capacity to initiate in vitro proliferative responses in murine splenocytes was in a large part related to the presence of LAP with a less potent, although still critical, dependence upon lipid A. On the other hand, the in vivo polyclonal antibody response was dependent only upon lipid A. In this respect, the presence of LAP had no apparent effect on the stimulation of nonspecific low affinity antibody. All preparations, regardless of LAP and lipid A content, stimulated similar in vivo enhancement of antibody responses to a protein antigen (adjuvanticity) and specific immune responses to the endotoxin polysaccharide antigen. The results emphasize the lack of correlation between in vitro B lymphocyte proliferative responses and in vivo immunostimulatory responses of bacterial endotoxin preparations. These data also suggest a minimal contribution of LAP to in vivo responses and an extremely limited contribution of lipid A to the adjuvant activity and the primary immune response to O-antigen polysaccharide.