Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Purification and Visualization of Lipopolysaccharide from Gram-negative Bacteria by Hot Aqueous-phenol Extraction
Published on: May 28, 2012
Relationship of the structure of bacterial lipopolysaccharides to its function in mitogenesis and adjuvanticity
Abstract:
The ability of bacterial lipopolysaccharides to induce lymphocyte mitogenesis and to act as an adjuvant of antibody formation was attributable to the lipid-A region of the molecule. Measured by induction of DNA synthesis, lipid A was mitogenic for bone marrow-derived lymphocytes obtained from spleens of congenitally athymic mice but not for thymocytes obtained from thymuses of normal mice. Adjuvanticity was demonstrated by the ability of lipid A to convert a tolerogenic regimen of antigen into one eliciting an immune response and by its ability to markedly enhance the antibody response to a weak antigen.
Related Concept Videos
Outer Layers of the Cell Envelope
Fimbriae, Pili, and Axial Filaments
Peptidoglycan Synthesis
Biosynthesis of Lipids
Formation of Lipopolysaccharides
Regulation of Bacterial Virulence

