B-glucans are known to be a major component of yeast and mould cell walls, but are they also that common in bacteria?
As a result of gelatin manufacture, bacterial endotoxin and other components from the cell walls are released, but has anybody measured B-glucans in gelatin solutions?
Have a look to the mini review of M. McIntosh, B. A. Stone and V. A. Stanisich, 2005. Curdlan and other bacterial (1→3)-β-d-glucans, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.
b-glucans are found in high amount in cell wall from yeast and fungi, also in some algae (laminarin). But it has been described that they also can be released from cellulose-based filters used for clarification and sterilization. We have faced real problems with that, and measured the b-glucan released from those filters with Glucatell kit (from associates of Cape Cod). It is high, and the amount released could be related with the manufacturer of the filter. They also enhances the response to endotoxin when attempting determine the endotoxin concentration using conventional Limulus test (LAL). Thus if you want to measure b-glucan concentrations in your sample you can use Glucatell kit. But if you just want to know about its presence, you can perform LAL test on your sample and evaluate the endotoxin recovery from spikes. An enhanced response to endotoxin is indicative of b-glucan contamination.
There are a fair amount of beta glucans in bacterial periplama (linear or cyclic beta glucans) . They play a critical rol in hipoosmotic adaptation and in particular in alpha proteobacteria they also are important in bacterial host interaction.
Please, evaluate some interesting methods with very similar aims.
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