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Infection and Immunity, December 2005, p. 8397-8401, Vol. 73, No. 12
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.73.12.8397-8401.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Toll-Like Receptor 2 Deficiency Delays Pneumococcal Phagocytosis and Impairs Oxidative Killing by Granulocytes
Maryse Letiembre,1,
Hakim Echchannaoui,1,
Philipp Bachmann,1
Fabrizia Ferracin,1
Concepción Nieto,2
Manuel Espinosa,2 and
Regine Landmann1*
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Research, University Hospital, Hebelstrasse 20, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland,1
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Ramiro de Maeztu, 9, E-28040 Madrid, Spain2
Received 23 July 2005/
Accepted 5 August 2005

ABSTRACT
Phagocytosis and killing of
Streptococcus pneumoniae was compared
in blood-derived wild-type (WT) and Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2)-deficient
(TLR2
/) polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). Phagocytosis
of green fluorescent protein-transformed pneumococci was delayed
in TLR2
/ PMN. These cells exhibited also a lower
oxidative bactericidal activity against
S. pneumoniae than WT
PMN, suggesting that TLR2 modulates bacterial clearance in PMN.

TEXT
The inflammatory response to purified lipoteichoic acid and
membrane lipoproteins of gram-positive bacteria is dependent
on Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) (
3,
18). In contrast, inflammation,
which follows infection with live gram-positive bacteria (
1),
is modulated only by TLR2. In addition to its effect on inflammation,
TLR2 signaling also regulates phagocytosis. Indeed, macrophage
phagocytosis of killed
Staphylococcus aureus was found impaired
in TLR2 and TLR4 double-knockout or MYD88KO macrophages in vitro
(
5). The contribution of TLR2 alone to granulocyte-dependent
killing of live gram-positive bacteria remains unresolved. Previous
reports from our group and others described that TLR2
/ mice have higher bacterial numbers in brain during meningitis
than wild-type (WT) mice (
10,
13). The reason for this defect
in bacterial clearing is unknown. We found stronger adherence
and uptake of
Streptococcus pneumoniae to TLR2-deficient than
to WT plexus choroideus epithelial cells 24 h after meningeal
infection (
9). This could be due to a weakened antimicrobial
activity of TLR2-deficient phagocytes. Therefore, we investigated
phagocytosis and bactericidal activity of WT and TLR2-deficient
granulocytes against live
S. pneumoniae.
Oxidative killing of S. pneumoniae by TLR2-deficient mouse blood PMN is reduced.
Clinical isolates of S. pneumoniae serotype 3 (H14) and serotype 1 (C5017) from patients with meningitis were used. H14 and C5017 had been applied for the murine meningitis model (9, 10). Bacteria were grown for 7 h in Todd-Hewitt broth supplemented with 0.5% Bacto yeast extract (Difco) and subcultured overnight in Mueller-Hinton broth double concentrated (MHBx2; Difco). The inoculum size used for incubation with polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) (multiplicity of infection [MOI] of 1) was calculated from an optical density at 600 nm of 0.4 (4 x 107 CFU/ml). Each inoculum was retrospectively assessed by CFU counting on blood agar plates. PMN were isolated to a purity of >97% (Gr1 staining) and bactericidal activity was measured, with modifications of previously published methods (22, 23) from a blood pool of at least 3 mice. The average yield was 150,000 PMN/mouse. Briefly, PMN were resuspended with plasma-preopsonized H14 S. pneumoniae or C5017 and incubated at 37°C for 30 min. Control assays included the addition of 100 µg/ml of gentamicin after the incubation to confirm that remaining bacteria were extracellular.
After 30 min, killing by TLR2/ cells was significantly lower than killing by WT cells (median 25% versus 60%, respectively) (Fig. 1A) (P < 0.01). Bacteria are killed by oxidative and nonoxidative mechanisms; the former requiring the enzyme NADPH oxidase, the activity of which can be blocked with diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) (11). To identify the mechanism of defective killing in TLR2/ mice, bactericidal activity of WT and TLR2/ PMN was compared in the presence of DPI. Oxidative killing was clearly failing in TLR2/ mice, since DPI reduced killing by WT PMN and not by TLR2/ cells (Fig. 1B). Alternatively, it can be hypothesized that the defect in killing of TLR2/ cells was due to a lack of priming. PMN were pretreated with tumor necrosis factor before the bactericidal assay. This treatment did not increase the killing activity of TLR2/ cells (data not shown). In conclusion, reduced oxidative bactericidal activity, which we found in vitro may have contributed to the increased bacterial load in TLR2/ mice during meningitis. Our results support in vitro studies showing that TLR2 triggering with lipoteichoic acid or Pam3CSK4, induces or enhances fMLP-induced oxidative burst in human granulocytes (17, 21). The role of TLRs in oxidative burst generation is further documented for group B streptococci, as mice, which lack the common signal molecule MyD88, failed to produce reactive oxygen upon stimulation with these bacteria (12). Future studies will investigate the molecular mechanism of TLR2-mediated oxidative killing and in particular whether TLR2 activation affects translocation of NADPH oxidase or reduces superoxide anion scavenging.
Phagocytosis of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-S. pneumoniae by TLR2-deficient mouse blood PMN is delayed.
Reduced bacterial killing may be due not only to weakened enzymatic
activity but also to slowed phagocytosis. We therefore compared
uptake of live GFP-
S. pneumoniae by PMN from the two mouse strains
by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy.
S. pneumoniae serotype
1 (C5017) was transformed as previously described (
6) with the
plasmid pLS1GFP and competence stimulating peptide 1. The plasmid
contained a mutated, soluble, and brightly fluorescent
gfp gene
(
15,
7) under the control of the P
M promoter (
16) and an erythromycin-resistant
(Erm
r) gene. P
M directs transcription of the
malMP operon, which
is involved in maltose utilization within the pneumococcal
mal regulon (
14,
16). P
M is negatively regulated by the protein
MalR, which is inactivated in the presence of maltose. Transformed
C5017 similarly expressed GFP in the exponential and stationary
growth phase; GFP expression was sustained even 2 days after
removal of antibiotic from the culture medium as determined
by fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis and confocal
microscopy. The constitutive
gfp expression in GFP-
S. pneumoniae cultures may be explained by two circumstances. First, in plasmid
pLS1GFP, P
M is negatively controlled by a single chromosomal
copy of
malR and thus not very tightly regulated. Second, this
promoter is induced by a mixture of glucose and maltose (
14).
Maltose can be formed endogenously, at least in
Escherichia coli, from glucose, independently of the maltose system enzymes
(
8). For phagocytosis, fluorescence was analyzed from the viable
pure PMN population after incubation with shaking at 37°C,
or at 4°C for controls, for 2.5 to 30 min at an MOI of 1
to 100 with GFP-C5017
S. pneumoniae. Bacteria were preopsonized
for 30 min at 37°C with 10% fresh mouse hirudine-plasma
and this plasma concentration was maintained during phagocytosis.
The kinetics of phagocytosis were significantly delayed in TLR2/ as compared to WT PMN (Fig. 2). At an MOI of 10:1, the percentage of PMN containing GFP bacteria increased to a plateau value of 48.2 ± 9.9% within 10 min in WT cells, whereas the same value was obtained only after 30 min by TLR2/ PMN (Fig. 2A) (P < 0.05). Phagocytosis did not further increase beyond 30 min in cells from either strain (data not shown). Figure 2B (upper FACS histograms) illustrates that, although the proportion of GFP-positive cells was smaller in TLR2/ than WT cells, the mean fluorescence among GFP-positive PMN was similar in cells from both strains. The signal was specific, since at 0°C a very weak uptake (8%) was seen (Fig. 2B). The uptake was strictly dependent on complement, since it was absent, when bacteria had not been opsonized or preopsonized with frozen plasma or serum (data not shown). Moreover it was derived from intracellular bacteria, since it was maintained after quenching of extracellular fluorescence by trypan blue (Fig. 2B). The fluorescence results obtained at an MOI of 10:1 indicate that, while the fraction of phagocytosing PMN was smaller among TLR2/ than among WT cells, the average numbers per cell of GFP molecules were similar in TLR2/ and WT cells. In contrast, at an MOI of 100:1, when a large PMN fraction (80% after 10 min) (Fig. 3A) contained bacteria, the number of GFP molecules per cell was also clearly higher in the WT than in TLR2/ PMN. This is illustrated in Fig. 3A as a higher mean fluorescence intensity (FI) in the WT than in TLR2/ cells. These data were confirmed by confocal microscopy studies, which showed that the proportion of cells containing bacteria was higher in the WT than in TLR2/ mice and more bacteria were contained within one cell. An example at 2.5 min at an MOI of 100:1 is illustrated in Fig. 3B. The delayed phagocytosis observed with TLR2/ PMN could be explained by a defect of the TLR2/ cells. However, a component of the TLR2/ plasma could also contribute to inhibition of phagocytosis. Therefore phagocytosis was assessed in the WT and TLR2/ PMN, which were incubated with plasma of either strain. Ten minutes after incubation, the percentage of GFP-positive cells was significantly higher in WT than in TLR2/ PMN, irrespective of the source of the opsonizing plasma (data not shown). This indicates that the delayed phagocytosis in TLR2/ cells was due to a cellular defect. This defect was, however, effective only during the early phases and disappeared 30 min after initiation of the bacterial contact.
TLR2 expression in PMN increases with phagocytosis.
The defect in phagocytosis observed in TLR2
/ PMN
could be directly due to the absence of TLR2 expression in these
cells or to another molecular change consequent to TLR2 deficiency.
Therefore TLR2 expression was investigated in WT and TLR2-deficient
resting and phagocytosing cells. TLR2 FACS analysis was performed
by incubating PMN after phagocytosis with GFP-C5017 with phycoerythrin
(PE)-labeled rat anti-mouse TLR2 antibody (clone 6C2; eBioscience,
San Diego, CA) or the corresponding PE-labeled rat immunoglobulin
G2b isotype control antibody. Ten and 30 min after incubation
at 37°C without phagocytosis, 81 and 86% of blood PMN expressed
membrane TLR2 with a mean FI of 16 and 22, respectively (Fig.
4A). The fraction of GFP-positive, TLR2-positive cells rose
from 91 to 94%, and the mean FI increased from 26 to 32, 10
and 30 min after phagocytosis, respectively (Fig.
4B). Phagocytosing
TLR2-deficient cells were negative in TLR2 staining (Fig.
4C).
Fifty percent of resting PMN kept at 4°C were TLR2 positive
(data not shown). Our results show that surface TLR2 increased
with incubation at 37°C and that nearly all PMN had strong
expression during phagocytosis. This is in agreement with recent
data showing TLR2 expression in all murine PMN including functionally
different subpopulations (
19). Thus, TLR2 expression on PMN
most likely contributed directly or indirectly to the acceleration
of the uptake process. We could exclude the contribution of
a plasma factor to the reduction of phagocytosis in TLR2
/ PMN, because bacterial opsonization and intracellular uptake
by WT PMN in the presence of TLR2
/ plasma did
not delay phagocytosis. We also found CR3 and Fc receptor expression
of similar intensity in all WT and TLR2
/ PMN (data
not shown).
Our findings are in contrast to a study in which internalization
of zymosan by RAW macrophages was found independent of TLR2
(
20). Our study utilizes live
S. pneumoniae and PMN and thus
more closely resembles the physiological situation and clearly
shows that the absence of TLR2 had a negative effect on phagocytosis.
With regard to the molecular mechanisms involved, the Rho GTPases
Rac-1 and Cdc42 represent a possible target of TLR2 activation.
It was previously shown that TLR2 stimulation by heat-killed
S. aureus in vitro induces a rapid activation of Rac-1 and Cdc42
(
4), which are both required for actin assembly during phagocytosis
(
2). In a recent study, phagosome maturation was found impaired
in the absence of TLR signaling in mouse macrophages infected
with heat-killed
S. aureus (
5). This TLR-induced phagosome maturation
was found to occur via MyD88-dependent activation of the p38
MAP kinase pathway. It remains unknown whether the effect of
TLR2 on pneumococcal killing is the consequence of its effect
on actin polymerization and PMN phagocytosis.
In conclusion, our studies clearly demonstrate that killing and phagocytosis of S. pneumoniae by mouse PMN were impaired in the absence of TLR2. These defects might explain the higher bacterial load observed in brains of TLR2/ mice during meningitis (10).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Zarko Rajacic and Beat Erne for technical help, Gennaro
De Libero and Therese Resink for critically reading the manuscript,
Donald A. Morrison of Chicago, IL, for his generous gift of
CSP, Gerd Pluschke from the Swiss Tropical Institute (Basel,
Switzerland) for his kind gifts of
S. pneumoniae strain C5017.
This work was supported by the Novartis-Stiftung (to R.L.), National Science Foundation grants 32-63855.00 and 3100 AO-104259/1; by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (grants BMC2002-11562-E and BFU2004-00687/BMC); and by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, network REIPI-FIS-CO 3/14 (to M.E.).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Research, University Hospital, Hebelstrasse 20, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland. Phone: 41-61-265 23 25. Fax: 41-61-265 32 72. E-mail:
Regine.Landmann{at}unibas.ch.

Editor: J. N. Weiser
M.L. and H.E. contributed equally to this work. 

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Infection and Immunity, December 2005, p. 8397-8401, Vol. 73, No. 12
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.73.12.8397-8401.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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