Endotoxin: Historical Perspectives

Many excellent volumes and reviews cover early and recent scientific progress in the fields of endotoxin research, which has led to the recognition that endotoxins not only represent powerful poisons, but also the O-antigens of gram-negative bacteria, and that they chemically constitute lipopolysaccharides. Dane Peter L. Panum attempted to characterize the putrid poison, work that now can be considered as the initiation of systematic and scientific endotoxin research. In any case, there is no doubt that it was Richard Pfeiffer who introduced the term endotoxin. It should be mentioned that in the characterization and the understanding of the creation of structural diversity of the O-specific chain, work on lysogenic phage conversion performed mainly by the groups of Staub and Robbins was essential.