SUMMARY The interaction of the anionic lipopolysaccharide complex isolated from a Gram-negative bacterium (Serratia marcescens) was studied in aqueous and saline solution with several cationic macromolecules, with the object of selectively inhibiting certain of the biological activities of this polysaccharide endotoxin. Incubation with lysozyme decreased the pyrogenic activity, while the tumour-damaging ability of this polysaccharide remained high. This was in contrast to interaction with RNase and with polymyxin B, in which cases the tumour-damaging activity was decreased while the pyrogenic activity was not affected. Ultracentrifuge experiments indicated that both the tumour-necrotic and especially the fever-producing fractions of this bacterial polysaccharide preparation are of much higher molecular weight (> 10S) than the major component (3.4S), which is either inactive or of low activity. The highest molecular weight fever-producing components appeared to be broken down in an enzymic type of process by the lysozyme.
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