Abstract
Summary
The present study was carried out to gain insight into the relationship between chemical structure and hemodynamic properties of endotoxins. Preparations of crude endotoxins, obtained by the trichloroacetic acid extraction of two strains of S. marcescens, were fractionated by hot aqueous phenol treatment and sequential acetone precipitation and the carbohydrate, uronic acid, aminonitrogen, and fatty acid content of each fraction were determined. The effect of fractionation on the endotoxic properties was followed by measuring changes in systemic arterial pressure, portal venous pressure, heart rate, blood pH, and hematocrit produced by intravenous administration of the fractions in dogs. Results indicate that the crude endotoxins of mixture of macromoliecular compounds and that sequential removal of nucleic acids, acidic polysaccharides, and peptidolipids had little effect on the hemodynamic properties of remaining lipopolysaccharides. It is suggested that a macromolecular fatty acid—carbohydrate complex of unknown structure and size represents the most probable chemical requirement for the elicitation of the characteristic hemodynamic response to bacterial endotoxins.
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