Polysaccharide-lipid complexes from Veillonella parvula.

Mergenhagen, Stephan E. (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.). Polysaccharide-lipid complexes from Veillonella parvula. J. Bacteriol. 90:1730-1734. 1965.-A strain of Veillonella parvula (V2) elaborates an extracellular slime when grown in a nutrient medium containing only dialyzable components. Deproteinization with chloroform-butanol of ethyl alcohol-precipitated material from the supernatant culture fluid leads to the isolation of a water-soluble lipopolysaccharide (LPS1). Another component (LPS2), showing similarity in biological and immunological properties to the endotoxic antigen (LPC) isolated from whole cells, was extracted with phenol from the insoluble emulsion remaining after chloroform-butanol extraction of slime. Analysis of polysaccharides by thin-layer chromatography demonstrated the presence of glucose and galactose in LPS1 and glucose, glucosamine, galactosamine, and a methyl pentose in LPC. LPS1 failed to give a positive epinephrine skin test after intravenous injection in rabbits and failed to kill pertussis-sensitized mice, whereas LPS2 and LPC were active in both of these bioassays. Both lipopolysaccharides (LPS1 and LPC) exhibited type-specific haptenic activity in hemagglutination tests with numerous anti-Veillonella rabbit sera. LPS1 was found in these tests to be unrelated to a heterologous strain of Veillonella possessing a related somatic antigen. These experiments reveal the presence of two chemically and immunologically distinguishable polysaccharide-lipid complexes in this strain of V. parvula.