Structural Requirements for Arthritogenicity of Peptidoglycans from Staphylococcus Aureus and Lactobacillus Plantarum and Analogous Synthetic Compounds

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Abstract
The comparative studies on the arthritogenicity of chemically well defined peptidoglycans (PG)2 from the cell walls of Staphylococcus aureus (FDA 209P) and Lactobacillus plantarum (ATCC 8014) showed that 1) a polymer of disaccharide-peptide with or without the presence of N-acetylglucosaminyl-ribitol-teichoic acid produced severe arthritis; 2) oligosaccharide-peptides with or without the special structure (N-acetylglucosaminyl-ribitol-teichoic acid in S. Aureus, a polymer of rhamnose and glucose in L. plantarum) produced severe disease; 3) disaccharide-heptapeptide-disaccharide with or without the presence of either glucose-ribitol-teichoic acid or a polymer of rhamnose and glucose appeared to be arthritogenic but much less effective for disease production; 4) N-acetylmuramyl-heptapeptide-N-acetylmuramic acid and disaccharide-hexapeptide were non-arthritogenic; 5) none of the synthetic N-acetylmuramyl-peptides, including tetrapeptide, produced the disease. Thus it is concluded that arthritis-inducing activity is related to the peptidoglycan moiety but not to the special structure, and the most important moiety responsible for disease production may be located in a chain length of two or more disaccharide units on PG subunits. However, it is discussed that non-arthritogenicity of peptidoglycans, including synthetic compounds, may be due to a lack of adjuvanticity in rats rather than a lack of antigenic determinant(s) responsible for production of arthritis.