Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of Pasteurella multocida (P multocida) and several Gram-negative bacterial pathogens were analyzed by methanolysis, trifluoroacetylation and gas chromatography (GC) on a fused-silica capillary column. The GC analysis indicated that LPS prepared from a strain of P multocida by phenol-water (PW) or trichloroacetic acid (TCA) extraction were quite different in chemical composition. However, LPS prepared from Salmonella enteritidis by the two extraction methods were very similar. PW-LPS extracts from different Pasteurella strains of a serotype had essentially identical GC patterns. Endotoxic LPS extracted from 16 different serotypes of P multocida by PW or by phenol-chloroform-petroleum ether procedures yielded chromatograms indicating similar composition of the fatty acid moieties but minor differences in carbohydrate content. When the chemical composition of endotoxic LPS extracted from several Gram-negative bacteria (P multocida, Pasteurella hacmolytica, Haemophilus somnus, Actinobacillus ligniersii, Brucella abortus, Treponema hyodysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Bacteriodes fragilis, Salmonella abortus equi and Salmonella enteritidis) were examined, each bacteria showed a unique GC pattern. The carbohydrate constituents in LPS of various Gram-negative bacteria were quite variable not only in the O-specific polysaccharides but also in the core polysaccharides. The LPS of closely related bacteria shared more fatty acid constituents with each other than with unrelated bacteria.
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