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Infection and Immunity, November 2000, p. 6215-6222, Vol. 68, No. 11
Abteilung Molekulare Biologie, Max-Planck-Institut
für Infektionsbiologie, D-10117 Berlin,1
Abteilung Infektionsbiologie, Max-Planck-Institut für
Biologie, D-72076 Tübingen,2 and
Abteilung Immunologie und Zellbiologie, Forschungszentrum
Borstel, D-23845 Borstel,3 Germany
Received 20 March 2000/Returned for modification 15 May
2000/Accepted 11 August 2000
A hallmark of infection with the gram-negative bacterium
Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the local infiltration and
subsequent activation of polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Several
gonococcal outer membrane proteins are involved in the interaction with
and the activation of these phagocytes, including gonococcal porin, the
most abundant protein in the outer membrane. Previous work suggests
that this porin plays a role in various cellular processes, including
inhibiting neutrophils activation and phagosome maturation in
professional phagocytes. Here we investigated the ability of porin to
modify the oxidative metabolism of human peripheral blood neutrophils and monocytes in response to particulate stimuli (including live gonococci) and soluble agents. The activation of the oxidative metabolism was determined by chemiluminescence amplified with either
luminol or lucigenin. We found that treatment of the phagocytes with
porin inhibits the release of reactive oxygen species measured as
luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence in response to zymosan, latex
particles, and gonococci. The engulfment of these particles was not,
however, affected by porin treatment. Similar effects of porin on the
chemiluminescence response were observed in cytochalasin B-treated
neutrophils exposed to the soluble chemotactic peptide N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine. This indicates that
porin selectively inhibits granule fusion with those cellular membranes that are in direct contact with porin, namely, the phagosomal and
plasma membranes. This porin-induced downregulation of oxidative metabolism may be a potent mechanism by which gonococci modulate oxygen-dependent reactions by activated phagocytes at inflammation sites.
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae Porin Modifies the
Oxidative Burst of Human Professional Phagocytes
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Abteilung
Molekulare Biologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Infektionsbiologie,
Schumannstr. 21/22, D-10117 Berlin, Germany. Phone: 49-30-28-46-04-02. Fax: 49-30-28-46-04-01. E-mail:
meyer{at}mpiib-berlin.mpg.de.
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