Czesław Ługowski

Characterization and diagnostic application of a lipopolysaccharide core oligosaccharide-protein conjugate.

Shigella sonnei phase II core oligosaccharide (OSPhII) was linked covalently with protein (bovine serum albumin or tetanus toxoid) to obtain a conjugate (OSPhII-protein) of good immunogenicity in rabbits. Anti-OSPhII-protein conjugate sera contained high levels of immunoglobulin G antibodies against the complete core region of Sh. sonnei lipopolysaccharide. The antigenic relationships between lipopolysaccharides of R1, R3 and R4 core types using anti-OSPhII-protein sera were studied. These antisera may be used for the rapid determination of core types in unknown enterobacterial strains.

Elevated levels of anti‐endotoxin antibodies in patients with bilateral idiopathic acute anterior uveitis

Purpose:  Endotoxins have been proved to be responsible for acute anterior uveitis (AAU) in animals in a well‐established experimental model of endotoxin‐induced uveitis (EIU). The purpose of our study was the detection of antibodies against endotoxins of selected enterobacteria in the serum of patients with idiopathic AAU and searching for correlations between the levels of these antibodies and the presence of HLA‐B27 antigen as well as characteristic signs of EIU such as bilaterality and the absence of spontaneous recurrences of the disease.

Changes in the lipopolysaccharide of Proteus mirabilis 9B-m (O11a) clinical strain in response to planktonic or biofilm type of growth

The impact of planktonic and biofilm lifestyles of the clinical isolate Proteus mirabilis 9B-m on its lipopolysaccharide (O-polysaccharide, core region, and lipid A) was evaluated. Proteus mirabilis bacteria are able to form biofilm and lipopolysaccharide is one of the factors involved in the biofilm formation. Lipopolysaccharide was isolated from planktonic and biofilm cells of the investigated strain and analyzed by SDS–PAGE with silver staining, Western blotting and ELISA, as well as NMR and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry techniques. Chemical and NMR spectroscopic analyses revealed that the structure of the O-polysaccharide of P. mirabilis 9B-m strain did not depend on the form of cell growth, but the full-length chains of the O-antigen were reduced when bacteria grew in biofilm. The study also revealed structural modifications of the core region in the lipopolysaccharide of biofilm-associated cells—peaks assigned to compounds absent in cells from the planktonic culture and not previously detected in any of the known Proteus core oligosaccharides. No differences in the lipid A structure were observed. In summary, our study demonstrated for the first time that changes in the lifestyle of P. mirabilis bacteria leads to the modifications of their important virulence factor—lipopolysaccharide.