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Infection and Immunity, December 2007, p. 5748-5752, Vol. 75, No. 12
0019-9567/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.00574-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Medical Diagnostic Sciences, Laboratory of Experimental Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium,1 Department of Biochemistry, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland,2 Bioceros BV, Yalelaan 46, 3584 CM Utrecht, The Netherlands,3 Department of Pathophysiology, Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium4
Received 20 April 2007/ Returned for modification 31 May 2007/ Accepted 5 September 2007
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a microorganism that frequently causes serious infections in children, the elderly, and immunocompromised patients. We studied whether the specific intracellular adhesion molecule-grabbing nonintegrin R1 (Sign-R1) receptor, involved in the uptake of capsular polysaccharides (caps-PS) by antigen-presenting cells, is necessary for the antibody response to pneumococcal caps-PS and phosphorylcholine (PC). The antibody response to caps-PS and PC was evaluated after vaccination with soluble caps-PS (Pneumovax) and after vaccination with heat-killed S. pneumoniae. The role of Sign-R1 was investigated by using Sign-R1 knockout mice and anti-Sign-R1 monoclonal antibodies. The immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibody response to PC and caps-PS (serotypes 3 and 14) was not affected by anti-Sign-R1 monoclonal antibodies. The IgM antibody response in Sign-R1 knockout mice was comparable to the antibody response in wild-type mice. The IgG antibody response to serotype 3, but not to serotype 14, tended to be lower in Sign-R1 knockout mice compared to wild-type mice. In conclusion, we found that Sign-R1 is not involved in the IgM antibody production to PC and caps-PS serotype 3 or 14 and the IgG immune response to PC and caps-PS serotype 14. There is no direct relation between capture and uptake of caps-PS serotype 14 by Sign-R1 and the initiation of the anti-caps-PS antibody production in mice.
Published ahead of print on 17 September 2007.
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