Release of lipopolysaccharide from intracellular compartments containing Salmonella typhimurium to vesicles of the host epithelial cell.

The biological effects of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on eucaryotic cells have traditionally been characterized following extracellular challenge of LPS on susceptible cells. In this study, we report the capacity of Salmonella typhimurium to release LPS once it is located in the intracellular environment of cultured epithelial cells. LPS is liberated from vacuolar compartments, where intracellular bacteria reside, to vesicles present in the host cell cytosol. The vesicle-associated LPS is detected in infected cells from the time when invading bacteria enter the host cell. Release of LPS is restricted to S. typhimurium-infected cells, with no LPS observed in neighboring uninfected cells, suggesting that dissemination of LPS occurs entirely within the intracellular environment of the infected cell. The amount of LPS present in host vesicles reaches a maximum when intracellular S. typhimurium cells start to proliferate, a time at which the entire host cell cytosol is filled with numerous vesicles containing LPS. All these data support the concept that intracellular bacterial pathogens might signal the host cell from intracellular locations by releasing bioactive bacterial components such as LPS.