In vitro synthesis of antibody to specific bacterial lipopolysaccharide by peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect antibody to specific bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in serum and in pokeweed mitogen (PWM) stimulated culture supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from four patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (AC). Antibody to LPS (derived from a single strain of Escherichia coli isolated from each patient's stool), was detected in the sera of each patient to a 10(-4) dilution. Only one of four control sera was positive at the 10(-4) dilution, with the others positive at 10(-3) dilution. Antibody to LPS was detected in the culture supernatants in three of the four patients and in none of the control subjects. Supernatants from patient cultures pretreated with mitomycin C or harvested after 1 day of incubation did not have detectable antibody. These results indicate that we can expand, in vitro, the population of peripheral blood B lymphocytes obtained from patients with AC and cause them to synthesize antibody against specific LPS from their own gut flora.