Increased susceptibility to lethal effects of bacterial lipopolysaccharide in mice with B-cell leukemia

Susceptibility to the lethal effects of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increased more than one hundredfold in BALB/c mice given syngeneic B-cell tumor transplants. The increased susceptibility to LPS that developed during the following weeks paralleled tumor growth in the liver and spleen. The tumor-bearing animals also developed an enhanced capacity to clear colloidal carbon from the blood, consistent with increased activity of the reticuloendothelial system. Although hypersusceptibility to LPS has been reported to a number of animal models, our experiment was th first demonstration in a tumor model that susceptibility correlates with tumor burden.