Affiliation:
1. Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Inbred mouse strains differ in their susceptibility to infection with the facultative intracellular bacterium
Listeria monocytogenes
, largely due to delayed or deficient innate immune responses. Previous antibody depletion studies suggested that neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes [PMN]) were particularly important for clearance in the liver, but the ability of PMN from susceptible and resistant mice to directly kill
L. monocytogenes
has not been examined. In this study, we showed that PMN infiltrated the livers of BALB/c/By/J (BALB/c) and C57BL/6 (B6) mice in similar numbers and that both cell types readily migrated toward leukotriene B4 in an
in vitro
chemotaxis assay. However, CFU burdens in the liver were significantly higher in BALB/c mice than in other strains, suggesting that PMN in the BALB/c liver might not be able to clear
L. monocytogenes
as efficiently as B6 PMN. Unprimed PMN harvested from either BALB/c or B6 bone marrow killed
L. monocytogenes
directly
ex vivo
, and pretreatment with autologous serum significantly enhanced killing efficiency for both.
L. monocytogenes
were internalized within 10 min and rapidly triggered intracellular production of reactive oxygen species in a dose-dependent manner. However, PMN from gp91
phox
-deficient mice also readily killed
L. monocytogenes
, which suggested that nonoxidative killing mechanisms may be sufficient for bacterial clearance. Together, these results indicate that there is not an intrinsic defect in the ability of PMN from susceptible BALB/c mice to kill
L. monocytogenes
and further suggest that if PMN function is impaired in BALB/c mice, it is likely due to locally produced modulating factors present in the liver during infection.
Funder
HHS | NIH | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Immunology,Microbiology,Parasitology
Cited by
10 articles.
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