title: Endotoxic properties of lipid A from Comamonas testosteroni.
abstract: The lipid A from Comamonas testosteroni has been isolated and its complete chemical structure determined [Iida, T., Haishima, Y., Tanaka, A., Nishijima, K., Saito, S. & Tanamoto, K. (1996). Eur J Biochem 237, 468-475]. In this work, the relationship between its chemical structure and biological activity was studied. The lipid A was highly homogeneous chemically and was characterized by the relatively short chain length (C(10)) of the 3-hydroxy fatty acid components directly bound to the glucosamine disaccharide backbone by either amide or ester linkages. The lipid A exhibited endotoxic activity in all of the assay systems tested (mitogenicity in mouse spleen cells; induction of tumour necrosis factor alpha release from both mouse peritoneal macrophages and mouse macrophage-like cell line J774-1, as well as from the human monocytic cell line THP-1; induction of nitric oxide release from J774-1 cells; Limulus gelation activity and lethal toxicity in galactosamine-sensitized mice) to the same extent as did 'Salmonella minnesota' lipid A or Escherichia coli LPS used as controls. The strong endotoxic activity of the C. testosteroni lipid A indicates that the composition of 3-hydroxydecanoic acid is not responsible for the low endotoxicity of the lipid A observed in members of the genus Rhodopseudomonas, as has previously been suggested. Furthermore, both the lack of a second acylation of the 3-hydroxy fatty acid attached at the 3' position, and the substitution of the hydroxyl group of the 3-hydroxy fatty acid attached at position 2, do not affect the manifestation of endotoxic activity or species specificity.
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, National Institute of Health Sciences, Kamiyoga 1-18-1, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8501, Japan1.
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Tanamoto
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, National Institute of Health Sciences, Kamiyoga 1-18-1, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8501, Japan1.
authors.forename: Takatoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iida
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, National Institute of Health Sciences, Kamiyoga 1-18-1, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8501, Japan1.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Haishima
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, National Institute of Health Sciences, Kamiyoga 1-18-1, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8501, Japan1.
authors.forename: Satoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Azumi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D020604:Comamonas testosteroni / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008050:Lipid A / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity*; D017737:Macrophages, Peritoneal / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008934:Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008050:Lipid A; D008934:Mitogens; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D009569:Nitric Oxide