ABSTRACTWe propose two antigenic types ofHelicobacter pylorilipopolysaccharides (LPS): highly antigenic epitope-carrying LPS (HA-LPS) and weakly antigenic epitope-carrying LPS (WA-LPS) based on human serum reactivity. Strains carrying WA-LPS are highly prevalent in isolates from gastric cancer patients. WA-LPS exhibits more potent biological activities compared to HA-LPS, namely, upregulation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) expression and induction of enhanced epithelial cell proliferation. The results of competitive binding assays using monosaccharides and methylglycosides, as well as binding assays using glycosidase-treated LPS, suggested that β-linkedN-acetyl-d-glucosamine and β-linkedd-galactose residues largely contributed to the highly antigenic epitope and the weakly antigenic epitope, respectively. WA-LPS exhibited greater binding activity to surfactant protein D (SP-D) in a Ca2+-dependent manner, and this interaction was inhibited by methyl-β-d-galactoside. The biological activities of WA-LPS were markedly enhanced by the addition of SP-D. Lines of evidence suggested that removal of β-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine residue, which comprises the highly antigenic epitope, results in exposure of the weakly antigenic epitope. The weakly antigenic epitope interacted preferentially with SP-D, and SP-D enhanced the biological activity of WA-LPS.
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