Dixon DR, Darveau RP Lipopolysaccharide heterogeneity: innate host responses to bacterial modification of lipid a structure Journal of Dental Research84(7) (2005)
584-595
NCBI PubMed ID:15972584 Publication DOI:10.1177/154405910508400702 Journal NLM ID:0354343 Publisher: Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Correspondence: rdarveauu.washington.edu Institutions: Department of Periodontics, University of Washington, Health Sciences Center, Box 357444, Seattle, WA 98195, USA, United States Army Dental Corps
The innate host response system is composed of various mechanisms designed to detect and facilitate host responses to microbial components, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS). To enable this to occur, innate systems contain multiple pattern recognition receptors (i.e., LBP, CD14, and TLRs), which identify certain features within bacterial LPS that are foreign to the host, as well as essential and uniquely specific for bacteria. Innate host identification of unique bacterial components or patterns, therefore, relies on the inability of bacteria to alter these essential or critical components dramatically. Historically, LPS have been viewed as essential outer-membrane molecules containing both a highly variable outer region (O-segment) as well as a relatively conserved inner region (lipid A). However, over the last decade, new evidence has emerged, revealing that increased natural diversity or heterogeneity within specific components of LPS, such as lipid A-resulting in minor to moderate changes in lipid A structure-can produce dramatic host responses. Therefore, examples of natural lipid A heterogeneity, and the mechanisms that control it, represent a novel approach in which bacteria modulate host responses and may thereby confer specific advantages to certain bacterial species under changing environmental host conditions.
lipid A, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), innate immunity, CD14, TLR
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