ANTI‐LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE ANTIBODIES MEASURED BY ENZYME‐IMMUNOASSAY IN DANISH BLOOD DONORS

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Abstract
To explore whether the intravenous administration of naturally occurring high‐titer human anti‐lipopolysaccharide IgG (anti‐LPS) is beneficial in the treatment of human septic shock, it is necessary to select blood donors according to anti‐LPS concentrations. The present paper describes an enzyme‐linked immuno‐adsorbent assay (ELISA) for the screening of blood donors to obtain such antibodies. Human specific IgG antibodies directed against smooth LPS from eleven different bacterial strains and species were quantitated. The ELISA is simple and uses only commercially available reagents. By optimizing assay conditions, a low unspecific background activity (OD below 0.010) was obtained, together with a large specific reading interval. 2021 human plasma samples from volunteer blood donors at six different blood‐banks in Denmark were screened by the ELISA. The median anti‐LPS antibody concentration was 9 mg/l. Five per cent of the donors had anti‐LPS concentrations above 40 mg/l (expected to be therapeutically useful). The age‐ and sex‐related distributions indicated that the highest prevalence of high anti‐LPS concentration was in males aged 40–49 years. It is concluded that specific anti‐LPS gammaglobulin based on naturally occurring anti‐LPS antibodies can be obtained in Denmark following the screening of blood‐donors, using the assay developed.