Structural and functional analyses of bacterial lipopolysaccharides

Bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) are powerful immunomodulators in infected hosts, and may cause endotoxic shock. Most of them share a common architecture but vary considerably in structural motifs from one genus, species, and strain to another. Cells of the innate immune response recognize evolutionarily conserved LPS molecular patterns of endotoxins and structural details thereby greatly influencing their response. (C) 2002 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.