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The Alteration of Endotoxin by Postheparin Plasma and its Purified Fractions

I. Comparison of the Ability of Guinea Pig Postheparin and Normal Plasma to Detoxify Endotoxin¹

From the Department of Immunochemistry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D. C.

Abstract

Postheparin plasma from the guinea pig or its euglobulin fraction caused 1) a significant detoxification of the endotoxin from E. coli when assayed for toxicity for 11-day-old chick embryos, 2) a reduction in endotoxin turbidity, and 3) the release of unesterified fatty acids when incubated with endotoxin. The euglobulin fraction required the presence of bovine serum albumin for maximum endotoxin detoxifying activity.

Normal guinea pig plasma or its euglobulin fraction caused little or no detoxification of endotoxin, no reduction in turbidity and no lipase activity.

The addition of endotoxin to a postheparin plasma-chylomicron mixture resulted in the release of more unesterified fatty acids than were released from the same mixture without the addition of endotoxin. The increase was dependent upon the amount of endotoxin and postheparin plasma.

The enzyme lipoprotein lipase was present in each purified fraction of postheparin plasma which detoxified endotoxin. The ability of the lipase to clear fat-containing plasma and to cause a release of unesterified fatty acids from lipid paralleled, but was not necessarily related to similar effects on endotoxin.

Footnotes

This investigation was supported in part by United States Public Health Service Fellowship 5-F2-AI-23, 854-02 from The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

² Present address: Cordis Laboratories, Miami, Florida.