Infect. Immun., 09 1997, 3736-3742, Vol 65, No. 9
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology

A proposed role for the lutropin receptor in contact-inducible gonococcal invasion of Hec1B cells

JM Spence, JC Chen and VL Clark
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, New York 14642, USA.

We previously reported the existence of a contact-inducible, enhanced invasion phenotype in the obligate human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Our present studies showed that the ability of glutaraldehyde-fixed eucaryotic cells to convert gonococci (GC) to this invasive phenotype (Inv+) is limited to cells derived from reproductive tissues. We present evidence that GC recognize the lutropin receptor (LHr), which recognizes both luteinizing hormone and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), as the tissue-specific environmental signal that induces the conversion of GC to the Inv+ phenotype. By competitive binding studies, we showed that Inv+ GC bind to Hec1B cells, a human endometrial cell line, by a unique adhesin not present on noninduced GC and that this Inv+ GC-specific binding is completely blocked by the addition of hCG. We demonstrated that limiting the access of GC to LHr decreases the ability of the host cell to both convert GC to the Inv+ phenotype and serve as a target for Inv+ GC invasion. We propose a model of GC invasion of Hec1B cells in which the LHr plays a dual role both as an induction signal and as part of the internalization mechanism. This utilization of LHr could account for both the preponderance of complicated GC disease in women and the observed correlation of the disease with the onset of menses.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Du, Y., Lenz, J., Arvidson, C. G. (2005). Global Gene Expression and the Role of Sigma Factors in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Interactions with Epithelial Cells. Infect. Immun. 73: 4834-4845 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Edwards, J. L., Apicella, M. A. (2004). The Molecular Mechanisms Used by Neisseria gonorrhoeae To Initiate Infection Differ between Men and Women. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 17: 965-981 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Edwards, J. G., Odell, W. D. (2003). Partial Characterization of Chorionic Gonadotropin-Like Binding Sites from the Bacteria Xanthomonas maltophilia. Exp. Biol. Med. 228: 926-934 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Fichorova, R. N., Desai, P. J., Gibson, F. C. III, Genco, C. A. (2001). Distinct Proinflammatory Host Responses to Neisseria gonorrhoeae Infection in Immortalized Human Cervical and Vaginal Epithelial Cells. Infect. Immun. 69: 5840-5848 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Spence, J. M., Clark, V. L. (2000). Role of Ribosomal Protein L12 in Gonococcal Invasion of Hec1B Cells. Infect. Immun. 68: 5002-5010 [Abstract] [Full Text]