Bacterial endotoxin principles

Other LAL methods are available based on turbidimetry and colorimetry. Reaction mixtures become turbid as gels, or clots form between LAL and bacterial endotoxin. Turbidimetry (sensitive to 0.(X)1 EU/mL) is more sensitive for detecting bacterial endotoxin than gel clot assays (sensitive to 0.03 EU/mL) because turbidity is discernible at low concentrations of endotoxin at which finn gels do not form. The rate at which turbidity increases is proportional to the concentration of endotoxin in the material under test. This principle may be applied in end-point or kinetic assays. 

Another kind of biotechnological product that is acquiring interest as a therapeutic agent is the biopharmaceuticals derived from plants. As a result of the limited production capacity of many pharmaceutical products, the production in plants represents an innovative tool that can expand the yields of active principles because the large volume of biomass that can be developed at the fields. An extra advantage is that these products are free of human diseases and mammalian viral vectors. In products derived from bacteria, the bacterial endotoxin content of the... 

Lipopolysaccharides form a class of macromolecules unique to Gramnegative bacteria. They are of great compositional and structural diversity, and yet, they are built up according to a common architectural principle. With few exceptions, lipopolysaccharides are biologically highly active substances. Lipopolysaccharides have been called endotoxins because of their toxic properties. Due to the antigenic properties which they confer to the surface of the bacterial cell, they are also termed O antigens. 

Loppnow, H., Flad, H.-D., Rietschel, E.Th., Brade, H. The active principle of bacterial lipopolysac-charides (endotoxins) for cytokine induction. In Schlag, G., Redl, H.(eds), Pathophysiology of Shock, Sepsis, and Organ. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (1993), pp. 405-416. 

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