Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from all six serotype strains of Haemophilus injhenzae was similar in composition. The oligosaccharide, of each LPS, was composed of glucose, galactose, heptose and 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonic acid. The lipid A was composed of glucosamine, phosphate and the fatty acids 14:O and 3-OH 14:O. Each LPS also contained ethanolamine and ethanolamine phosphate, and the oligosaccharides from two strains additionally contained small amounts of glucosamine. Although the LPS was similar in composition, different serotypes had quantitative differences, especially in the galactose content, which correlated with the antigenic specificity of their homologous antisera and with their mobility on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). A survey by SDS-PAGE showed that LPS from strains of the serotypes a, c and d was characteristically of lower M , than the LPS from most (80%) serotype b strains. I N T R O D U C T I O NHaemophilus inzuenzae is widespread in the human population, where it colonizes the nasopharynx. Although normally commensal, it has the potential to cause systemic infection in children, including meningitis. It is either non-capsular or expresses one of six antigenically and chemically distinct capsular polysaccharides, designated types a-f (Pittman, 193 1). The majority of strains causing systemic infection synthesize the type b capsule, an acidic polysaccharide with the repeating unit of ribosyl-ribitol-phosphate (PRP) (Moxon & Vaughn, 1981; Turk, 1982). Although the type b capsule is known to be a major virulence factor, a potential role for non-capsular surface components such as the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of this organism has been indicated by the results of recent studies. These have shown an association between virulence and alterations in LPS as a result of transformation (Zwahlen et al., 1983(Zwahlen et al., , 1985 and also an apparent relationship between virulence and the presence of certain antigenic determinants in H. inpuenzae type b LPS as defined by monoclonal antibodies (Kimura & Hansen, 1986).H. influenzae LPS also displays endotoxic properties similar to those of enterobacterial LPS (Flesher & Insel, 1978) and may be involved in the acquisition of serum resistance . Previous studies have shown the LPS to possess a lipid A moiety and an oligosaccharide, but to lack a high-M, sidechain polysaccharide (Flesher & Insel, 1978;Inzana, 1983). Because of the apparent rough nature of this LPS the term lipo-oligosaccharide is currently being employed by a few authors. However, we prefer to retain the original terminology in order to specify a molecule which has the biological and structural characteristics of an LPS.
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