Endotoxin refers to a component of the outer cell membrane of Gram-negative bacteria called lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS is the biologically active portion of naturally occurring endotoxin complexes.
In a counterintuitive result, researchers found that giving male rats a low dose of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) prior to inducing a model of acute kidney injury (AKI) improved outcomes.