Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide antagonizes Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide at toll-like receptor 4 in human endothelial cells.

E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces cytokine and adhesion molecule expression via the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling complex in human endothelial cells. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism by which Porphyromonas gingivalis LPS antagonizes E. coli LPS-dependent activation of human endothelial cells. P. gingivalis LPS at 1 μg/ml inhibited both E. coli LPS (10 ng/ml) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein (HSP) 60.1 (10 μg/ml) stimulation of E-selectin mRNA expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) without inhibiting interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) stimulation. P. gingivalis LPS (1 μg/ml) also blocked both E. coli LPS-dependent and M. tuberculosis HSP60.1-dependent but not IL-1β-dependent activation of NF-κB in human microvascular endothelial (HMEC-1) cells, consistent with antagonism occurring upstream from the TLR/IL-1 receptor adaptor protein, MyD88. Surprisingly, P. gingivalis LPS weakly but significantly activated NF-κB in HMEC-1 cells in the absence of E. coli LPS, and the P. gingivalis LPS-dependent agonism was blocked by transient expression of a dominant negative murine TLR4. Pretreatment of HUVECs with P. gingivalis LPS did not influence the ability of E. coli LPS to stimulate E-selectin mRNA expression. Taken together, these data provide the first evidence that P. gingivalis LPS-dependent antagonism of E. coli LPS in human endothelial cells likely involves the ability of P. gingivalis LPS to directly compete with E. coli LPS at the TLR4 signaling complex.