ABSTRACT
Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is present on the outer membranes of all gram-negative bacteria and causes the systemic inflammatory response syndrome and septic shock, which finally develop to multiorgan failure, accompanied by extensive cell death. This chapter focuses on apoptotic cell death in in vivo response to LPS. The administration of LPS into normal mice induced marked apoptotic cell death in lymphoid organs. The reduction of peritoneal CD5+ B cells might be caused by their apoptotic cell death. When LPS was administered to normal mice, apoptotic cell death was hardly detected in the liver, kidney, heart, and lung. The characterization of LPS-induced apoptosis in D-GalN-sensitized mice might be also useful for understanding the role of apoptotic cell death in clinical endotoxin shock or septic shock.
