Abstract
Summary
Endotoxic lipopolysaccharides (LPS) have potent ability to consume complement (C) components and generate biologically active peptides from the C system in normal mammalian serum. The present investigation shows that LPS derived from Escherichia coli has potent ability to consume hemolytic C in all vertebrate species in which C activity is detectable, including species as low phylogenetically as representative Chon-drichthyes (horned shark, nurse shark), Os-teichthyes (paddlensh, carp), Amphibia (bull frog, marine frog), and Reptilia (cobra, turtle). Hence, the consumption of C components in response to this ubiquitous bacterial product is a characteristic of vertebrate serum virtually throughout vertebrate evolution.
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