MINI REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Nutritional Immunology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1588129

The balance between proinflammatory, "bad", and immunomodulatory, "good", lipopolysaccharide for understanding gut-derived systemic inflammation

Provisionally accepted
Rafael TumeRafael Tume1,2Samar El SherbinySamar El Sherbiny3Roberto BonoRoberto Bono3Thomas GautierThomas Gautier4Jean-Paul Pais-De-BarrosJean-Paul Pais-De-Barros4,5Tomas MeroñoTomas Meroño1,2,6*
  • 1Biomarkers and Nutrimetabolomics Laboratory, Department de Nutrició, Ciències de l’Alimentació i Gastronomia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2Nutrition and Food Safety Research Institute (INSA), 08028, Barcelona, Spain
  • 3Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Turin, 10126, Turin, Italy
  • 4Center for Translational and molecular Medicine (CTM) UMR1231, Inserm / Université Bourgogne Europe, Lipness Team, 21000, Dijon, France
  • 5DiviOmics Platform, UMS 58 BioSand – Université Bourgogne Europe, 21000, Dijon, France
  • 6Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable (CIBERFES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain

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Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria has been one of the most studied pathogen-associated molecular patterns triggering rapid inflammatory reactions.However, evidence shows that not all LPS molecules are proinflammatory ("bad"), and that "good" LPS from gut commensal bacteria exert immunomodulatory actions. The Limulus amebocyte lysis test commonly used to quantify LPS in circulation, only targets "bad" LPS, when not inactivated by plasma components. Use of other methods showed healthy subjects featuring elevated levels of LPS (suggesting predominance of "good" or inactive LPS in circulation). This review aims to summarize the evidence supporting the higher abundance of "good" LPS coming from gut commensals of healthy individuals and their potential impact in human health.

Keywords: lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin), Inflammation, gut health, nutrition, Gut Microbiota

Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Tume, El Sherbiny, Bono, Gautier, Pais-De-Barros and Meroño. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Tomas Meroño, Biomarkers and Nutrimetabolomics Laboratory, Department de Nutrició, Ciències de l’Alimentació i Gastronomia, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material