Selective binding of lipid A to responder and nonresponder B lymphocyte subpopulations

125I-labeled lipid A is selectively bound to B cell-enriched populations. A combined method that employs autoradiography to detect binding of 125I-labeled lipid A and immunofluorescence to detect B cells is described. With this analytic technique it was demonstrated that 25%-30% of B cells in the spleen exhibit binding and that the binding by splenocytes from lipopolysaccharide responder mice cannot be distinguished from that of nonresponder mice.