Involvement of lipopolysaccharide in the pathogenicity of Treponema hyodysenteriae.
Treponema hyodysenteriae, the etiologic agent of swine dysentery, caused gross and microscopic lesions in the large intestines of C3HeB/FeJ mice. No gross lesions were observed in the intestines of the closely related, but lipopolysaccharide-resistant, C3H/HeJ strain of mice, and microscopic lesions were mild, if present at all. In the presence of actinomycin D, 1 mg of T. hyodysenteriae lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was lethal for C3HeB/FeJ but not for C3H/HeJ mice. Also, the treponemal LPS was chemotactic for macrophages from C3H/HeJ mice but not for macrophages from C3HeB/FeJ mice. The difference between the two mouse strains in lesion development may be due to the nondestructive nature of LPS in C3H/HeJ mice, which suggests that the treponemal LPS is involved in the pathogenicity of T. hyodysenteriae. T. hyodysenteriae may prove to be a useful bacterium in the study of LPS-resistant C3H/HeJ mice, because resistance to the treponemal LPS and to the treponeme itself appear to correlate.
D000818:Animals; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000187:drug effects; D003609:Dactinomycin / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D014208:Treponema / Q000472:pathogenicity*
D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D003609:Dactinomycin