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Infection and Immunity, August 2001, p. 5138-5150, Vol. 69, No. 8
Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children,
Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8,1 Division of
Respirology, Department of Medicine,2 and
Department of Surgery,4 The University
of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Comparative Research,
Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Center, Toronto,
Ontario M4N 3M5,5 and The Toronto
General Hospital Research Institute of the University Health
Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C4,3
Canada
Received 5 February 2001/Returned for modification 14 March
2001/Accepted 2 May 2001
Progressive pulmonary infection is the dominant clinical feature of
cystic fibrosis (CF), but the molecular basis for this susceptibility
remains incompletely understood. To study this problem, we developed a
model of chronic pneumonia by repeated instillation of a clinical
isolate of Burkholderia cepacia (genomovar III,
ET12 strain), an opportunistic gram-negative bacterium, from a case of
CF into the lungs of Cftr m1unc
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.8.5138-5150.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Enhanced Susceptibility to Pulmonary Infection with
Burkholderia cepacia in
Cftr
/
Mice
/
(Cftr
/
) and congenic
Cftr+/+ controls. Nine days after the last
instillation, the CF transmembrane regulator knockout mice
showed persistence of viable bacteria with chronic severe
bronchopneumonia while wild-type mice remained healthy. The
histopathological changes in the lungs of the susceptible Cftr
/
mice were characterized by
infiltration of a mixed inflammatory-cell population into the
peribronchiolar and perivascular spaces, Clara cell hyperplasia, mucus
hypersecretion in airways, and exudation into alveolar airspaces by a
mixed population of macrophages and neutrophils. An increased
proportion of neutrophils was observed in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid
from the Cftr
/
mice, which, despite an
increased bacterial load, demonstrated minimal evidence of activation.
Alveolar macrophages from Cftr
/
mice
also demonstrated suboptimal activation. These observations suggest
that the pulmonary host defenses are compromised in lungs from animals
with CF, as manifested by increased susceptibility to bacterial
infection and lung injury. This murine model of chronic pneumonia thus
reflects, in part, the situation in human patients and may help
elucidate the mechanisms leading to defective host defense in CF.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Clinical
Sciences Division, Rm. 6264 Medical Sciences Building, University of
Toronto, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8.
Phone: (416) 978-8923. Fax: (416) 971-2112. E-mail:
gregory.downey{at}utoronto.ca.
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