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Infection and Immunity, January 2003, p. 260-266, Vol. 71, No. 1
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.1.260-266.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Entry of the Lymphogranuloma Venereum Strain of Chlamydia trachomatis into Host Cells Involves Cholesterol-Rich Membrane Domains

Isabelle Jutras,1 Laurence Abrami,2 and Alice Dautry-Varsat1*

Unité de Biologie des Interactions Cellulaires CNRS URA 1960, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France,1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland2

Received 21 June 2002/ Returned for modification 6 August 2002/ Accepted 23 September 2002

Chlamydiae are bacterial pathogens which develop strictly inside the epithelial cells of their hosts. The mechanism used by chlamydiae to enter cells is not well characterized; however, it is thought to consist of a receptor-mediated process. In addition, the formation of clathrin-coated pits appears to be dispensable for chlamydiae to be internalized by host cells. Clathrin-independent endocytosis has recently been shown to occur through cholesterol-rich lipid microdomains, which are characterized by detergent insolubility. In the present study, we investigated whether these lipid domains play a role in Chlamydia trachomatis serovar L2 internalization by host cells. Our results show that after binding to HeLa cells, chlamydiae are associated with detergent-resistant lipid microdomains (DRMs), which can be isolated by fractionation of infected HeLa cells and flotation on a sucrose gradient. After internalization by HeLa cells, chlamydiae were still found in DRMs. In addition, extraction of plasma membrane cholesterol inhibited infection of HeLa cells by C. trachomatis. Many of the proteins associated with DRMs are glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins; however, our results could not identify a role for GPI-anchored proteins in the entry process. The same results were obtained for Chlamydia psittaci strain GPIC. We propose that cholesterol-rich domains participate in the entry of chlamydiae into host cells. Chlamydia binding to cholesterol-rich domains may lead to coalescence of the bacterial cells, which could trigger internalization by host cells.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Unité de Biologie des Interactions Cellulaires, Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. Phone: 33 1 45 68 85 74. Fax: 33 1 40 61 32 38. E-mail: adautry{at}pasteur.fr.

Editor: D. L. Burns

Infection and Immunity, January 2003, p. 260-266, Vol. 71, No. 1
0019-9567/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.1.260-266.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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