ABSTRACT

When bacteria are lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-liberating, the type or physiochemical property (i.e., serotype, immunotype, smooth, rough) of endotoxin released, as well as the amount produced, can be expected to influence its ability to modulate the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses (bioreactivity) important in natural host defense. In fact, any additional or alternative variations or factors may render antibiotic-induced endotoxin release dramatically more complex than in the circumstances considered above, while ultimately resulting in a multitude of possible influences on the final detectable endotoxin levels among and within bacterial species. The lack of data also made it impossible to determine the potential significance of differential antibiotic-induced endotoxin released by treatment with various subclasses of antibiotics using the same rat strains. The relevance of differential antibiotic-induced endotoxin release thus depends on the magnitude and bio-reactivity of endotoxin as well as on the individual LPS sensitivity of the host.