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Infection and Immunity, September 1998, p. 4130-4136, Vol. 66, No. 9
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Stimulation of Nitric Oxide Production in Macrophages by Babesia bovis

Roger W. Stich,1,dagger Lisl K. M. Shoda,1 Miriam Dreewes,1 Barbara Adler,2,Dagger Thomas W. Jungi,2 and Wendy C. Brown1,*

Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-7040,1 and Institute of Veterinary Virology, University of Berne, CH-3012 Berne, Switzerland2

Received 1 April 1998/Returned for modification 12 May 1998/Accepted 4 June 1998

Gamma interferon (IFN-gamma )-activated macrophages are believed to play a key role in resistance to Babesia bovis through parasite suppression by macrophage secretory products. However, relatively little is known about interactions between this intraerythrocytic parasite and the macrophages of its bovine host. In this study, we examined the in vitro effect of intact and fractionated B. bovis merozoites on bovine macrophage nitric oxide (NO) production. In the presence of IFN-gamma , B. bovis merozoites stimulated NO production, as indicated by the presence of increased L-arginine-dependent nitrite (NO2-) levels in culture supernatants of macrophages isolated from several cattle. The merozoite crude membrane (CM) fraction stimulated greater production of NO, in a dose-dependent manner, than did the merozoite homogenate or the soluble, cytosolic high-speed supernatant fraction. Stimulation of NO production by CM was enhanced by as little as 1 U of IFN-gamma per ml of culture medium. Upregulation of inducible NO synthase mRNA in bovine macrophages by either B. bovis-parasitized erythrocytes and IFN-gamma or CM was also observed. B. bovis-specific T-helper lymphocyte culture supernatants, all of which contained IFN-gamma , were also found to induce L-arginine-dependent NO2- production. Supernatants that induced the highest levels of NO also contained biologically active TNF. These results show that B. bovis merozoites and antigen-stimulated B. bovis-immune T cells can induce the production of NO, a molecule implicated in both protection and pathologic changes associated with hemoprotozoan parasite infections.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-7040. Phone: (509) 335-6067. Fax: (509) 335-8529. E-mail: wbrown{at}vetmed.wsu.edu.

dagger Present address: Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1092.

Dagger Present address: Institute for Clinical and Molecular Biology, D-81377 Munich, Germany.

Infection and Immunity, September 1998, p. 4130-4136, Vol. 66, No. 9
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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