%0 Journal Article %A Norimatsu, Mari %A Ono, Tomoko %A Aoki, Akemi %A Ohishi, K. %A Tamura, Y. %T In-vivo induction of apoptosis in murine lymphocytes by bacterial lipopolysaccharides %D 1995 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 43 %N 4 %P 251-257 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00222615-43-4-251 %I Microbiology Society, %X Summary The effect of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on the lymphoid organs in C3H/HeN and C3H/HeJ mice was investigated. In C3H/HeN mice, LPS induced apoptosis, characterised by morphological nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation resulting in thymic atrophy. Similar but less severe changes were also observed in the spleen and lymph nodes. In C3H/HeJ mice, only a slight depletion of lymphocyte numbers was observed in the lymphoid organs. The plasma endotoxin levels were dependent on the LPS dose regardless of mouse strain. On the other hand, the plasma TNF-a levels were significantly elevated in C3 H/HeN mice 1h post-injection and the time course of plasma corticosterone concentration correlated well with the development of apoptosis. These findings suggest that TNF-a and corticosterone may play an important role in LPS-induced apoptosis of lymphocytes. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-43-4-251