The outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria contains lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a low molecular weight carbohydrate with a molecular mass of 10-20 kDa. It is heterogeneous, and composed of O antigen (a repeating glycan polymer), core oligosaccharide (which links the O antigen to Lipid A - the third component, and non-carbohydrate components such as phosphate and amino acids groups. Lipid A, has multiple fatty acids which serve to anchor LPS into the bacterial membrane allowing the O antigen and core oligosaccharide to protrude and contributes to a major part of the toxicity of gram-negative bacteria. Also known as endotoxin, when consumed by animals, LPS induces a strong inflammatory response and/or sepsis.This LPS Isolation Kit uses bacterial membrane lysis buffer and protein digestion to yield micrograms of LPS from bacterial culture (approximately 1-4% of dry weight). This kit does not use chlorofrom or phenol like traditional methods, and it will yield pure LPS in less than 2 hours that can be easily characterized and quantified!
