Induction of delayed type hypersensitivity-like skin reaction by peptidoglycans of bacterial cell walls.

Abstract

Water-soluble glycopeptides isolated from Lactobacillus plantarum and Staphylococcus epidermidis cell walls elicited a delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH)-like skin reaction in rats previously immunized with Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell walls, but not in unimmunized rats. Histological examination of the skin reaction sites in immunized animals revealed a close similarity of this skin reaction to a typical DTH reacton with respect to the time course of development and the types of cells that infiltrated into the skin reaction sites, which were characterized by a predominant infiltration of mononuclear cells at 48 hr. This DTH-like reaction was also demonstrated by immunizing the rats with the cell wall peptidoglycans of L. plantarum or S. epidermidis and skin testing them with homologous as well as heterologous peptidoglycans. The DTH-like reaction appeared to be caused by peptidoglycans that exist in common in the cell walls of phylogenetically distant bacterial species. Furthermore, it was also suggested that the putative antigenic determinants(s) might include both the glycan chain and part of the peptide moieties of the cell wall peptidoglycan rather than either of the single moieties.