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Infection and Immunity, May 2001, p. 2797-2807, Vol. 69, No. 5
Department of Infectious Diseases, Leiden University
Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
Received 20 September 2000/Returned for modification 21 December
2000/Accepted 24 January 2001
In bacterial endocarditis (BE), intravascular infection with
Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus
sanguis, or Staphylococcus epidermidis can lead
to formation of a fibrin clot on the inner surface of the heart and
cause heart dysfunction. The events that start the coagulation in the
early stage of the disease are largely unknown. We have recently shown
that human endothelial cells (EC) upon binding and internalization of
S. aureus, but not S. sanguis or
S. epidermidis, express tissue factor (TF)-dependent
procoagulant activity (TFA). The present study shows that infection of
EC with these three pathogens induces surface expression of
intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion
molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and monocyte adhesion. Subsequent coculture of
these cells synergistically enhanced TFA, which was exclusively
dependent on TF molecules that were expressed on EC during coculture.
TFA induction required direct contact between monocytes and
bacterium-infected EC, but the signals for this response were not
generated by the binding of monocytes through their
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.5.2797-2807.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Monocytes Augment Bacterial Species- and
Strain-Dependent Induction of Tissue Factor Activity in
Bacterium-Infected Human Vascular Endothelial Cells
2-
or
4-integrins to ICAM-1 or VCAM-1, respectively, on
infected EC. The mechanism by which monocytes induce TFA in
bacterium-infected EC was partly mediated by the proinflammatory
cytokine interleukin-1 produced by the cells during coculture.
Endogenous tumor necrosis factor alpha was not involved. This
modulating effect of monocytes on species- and strain-dependent TFA of
bacterium-infected EC supports our hypothesis that in an early stage in
the pathogenesis of BE, as well as other intravascular infections that
lead to detrimental fibrin formation, the coagulation cascade can be
activated on the surfaces of EC as a consequence of specific
interactions between pathogenic bacteria, EC, and monocytes.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Infectious Diseases, C5-P, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC),
P. O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands. Phone:
31-71-5261784/2613. Fax: 31-71-5266758. E-mail:
H.Beekhuizen{at}lumc.nl.
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