A prolonged period of uninterrupted protein synthesis is essential for survival in mice given a submicrogram dose of bacterial endotoxin.

A majority of mice failed to survive challenge with a normally tolerated dose of cycloheximide given at intervals up to 96 h after a single intraperitoneal injection of 0.02 microgram of S. enteritidis endotoxin. Only by 168 h did a majority of endotoxin-pretreated animals resist such a challenge. This finding underlines the essential role of uninterrupted protein synthesis in resistance to the lethal effects of endotoxin, and demonstrates the relatively persistent nature of this requirement after systemic exposure to an extremely low dose of lipopolysaccharide.