Lipopolysaccharide structure and serum sensitivity of non-serogroupable Neisseria meningitidis

Bactericidal activities of normal human serum for non-serogroupable strains of Neisseria meningitidis were determined. In similar experiments with isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from localized infections, strains with group I lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were uniformly serum resistant and those with group II were serum sensitive. We found no similar association between serum sensitivity of the meningococcal strains and their lipopolysaccharide groups determined by the same pyocin typing system used to classify the gonococcal isolates. Immune mouse sera raised against non-serogroupable meningococci of either LPS group I or II were bactericidal for non-serogroupable strains of the same LPS group and also cross-reactive for strains of the opposite group. They were not bactericidal for the majority (13/17) of the serogroupable strains tested. These findings suggest there are antigens, in addition to the LPS and capsules, that elicit some of the "natural" bactericidal antibodies to pathogenic meningococci.