[Generation and characterization of avian vitelline antibodies against lipopolysaccharide and lipid A. 2. Investigations of specificity of egg yolk antibodies (IgY) against endotoxin].

Various preparations of egg yolk antibodies against different endotoxins of gram-negative bacteria were characterized with regard to their immunological properties. To do this, we investigated the reactivity of antibodies against a number of lipopolysaccharides and lipid-A by enzyme-immuno-assays and immunoblot. It could be shown that all antibody preparations contained specific antibodies, reactive with their homologous antigen. Furthermore these antibodies showed cross-reactivity with structural diverse LPS- and lipid A-antigens from different sources. Anti lipid A-antibodies appeared to be highly crossreactive with purified LPS and lipid A from several gram-negative organisms. Egg yolk antibodies raised by immunization with LPS showed cross-reactivity with enterobacterial LPS and only marginal reactivity with both LPS from other gram-negative bacteria and lipid A. The results from immunoblot experiments confirmed our findings from EIA-studies.