We sought to determine whether a standardized "priming" event, namely a small dose of LPS, would alter physiological responses to a subsequent larger "challenge" dose of endotoxin. Accordingly, four groups of pigs (N = 5-6) were studied. One group received neither priming nor challenge doses of LPS. A second group were not primed but were infused with a challenge dose (250 micrograms/kg) of LPS. A third group were pretreated 18 h before being studied with a priming dose of LPS (20 micrograms/kg), but were not infused with a second dose of LPS. A fourth group received both priming and challenge doses of LPS. Priming with LPS exacerbated endotoxin-induced arterial hypoxemia, and decreased animal-to-animal variability in the degree of hypoxemia induced by a challenge dose of endotoxin. Priming blunted the early phase (30 min) and exacerbated the delayed phase (120-210 min) of LPS-induced pulmonary hypertension. Priming blunted LPS-induced release of prostacyclin and thromboxane A2. The use of a priming dose of LPS increases the severity and reproducibility of LPS-induced acute lung injury in swine.