Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Infection and Immunity, June 2006, p. 3180-3189, Vol. 74, No. 6
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.02004-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, Locked Bag No. 6, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia,1 Discipline of Medicine, Central Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia2
Received 12 December 2005/ Returned for modification 2 February 2006/ Accepted 7 March 2006
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
There are two forms of TNF, transmembrane TNF (memTNF) and soluble TNF (solTNF), which function physiologically by interacting with the receptors TNFRI and TNFRII. TNF is initially synthesized as a nonglycosylated, transmembrane protein, which exists as a homotrimer. Membrane-bound TNF may be cleaved by the matrix metalloprotease, tumor necrosis factor alpha-converting enzyme, which leads to the release of soluble TNF (16). The two TNF receptors are expressed on a diverse range of cell types, but they have distinct downstream effects (22). Furthermore, identification of a casein kinase I motif in the intracellular domain of memTNF suggests that memTNF itself is also able to transduce signals as a receptor (14, 36).
The relative contributions of memTNF and solTNF to inflammation during infection or autoimmune disease have been difficult to elucidate. The availability of mice which express only memTNF on a TNF/ or TNF//lymphotoxin/ background permits analysis of this question. Mice which express memTNF in the absence of solTNF (27) or in the absence of both solTNF and lymphotoxin (20) were protected against acute Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, but they succumbed to late progressive infection (21, 29). Furthermore, in a model of autoimmune encephalomyelitis, the disease progression in memTNF mice was indistinguishable from the disease progression in wild-type (WT) mice, whereas TNF/ mice showed delayed disease onset (27).
In this study, we used memTNF mice to determine the relative contributions of soluble and memTNF to the control of primary and secondary L. monocytogenes infections. memTNF mice cleared a low-dose Listeria infection with kinetics similar to those of WT mice, and they were fully protected against an otherwise lethal secondary challenge. However, following primary infection with a higher dose of Listeria, memTNF mice exhibited delayed clearance of bacteria with slower T-cell accumulation and increased inflammation and mortality, indicating that soluble TNF is required for optimal control of a primary infection. In contrast, expression of memTNF alone by immune T cells was sufficient to transfer immunity to Listeria infection.
|
|
|---|
Experimental infection.
L.
monocytogenes strain EGD was prepared as previously described
(24). WT,
memTNF, and TNF/ mice were infected with
Listeria intravenously via the lateral tail vain. At specified
times, the numbers of viable bacteria in the spleen and liver were
determined by plating serial dilutions of organ homogenates on tryptic
soy agar (Difco, Detroit, MI) and incubating the preparations
overnight. Heat-killed L. monocytogenes was prepared by
incubating Listeria cells at 80°C for 2 h.
For transfer experiments, TNF/ mice were
irradiated with 500 rads prior to infection. Groups of mice were
injected intravenously with 200 bacilli and 7.5 x
106 purified T cells. Bone marrow-derived macrophages were
cultured with 15% L929 supernatant for 6 days before overnight
prestimulation with combinations of 200 U/ml gamma interferon
(IFN-
) and 10 ng/ml of lipopolysaccharide. Macrophages were
infected for 1 h with Listeria at a multiplicity of
infection of 1, they were washed, and bacterial loads were determined
after 4 h of
incubation.
Cytokine production and phenotypic analysis of cellular infiltration.
Single-cell suspensions were prepared
from mouse livers perfused with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)
containing heparin (10 U/ml; Sigma, St. Louis, MO) and from
splenocytes. Erythrocytes were lysed, and cells were suspended in RPMI
medium (Cytosystem, Sydney, Australia) containing 10% fetal calf serum
(Trace, Sydney, Australia), 2 mM L-glutamine, 0.5 µM
2-mercaptoethanol (Sigma), 100 U/ml penicillin (Trace), and 100
µg/ml streptomycin (CSL, Melbourne, Australia). Leukocytes were
incubated on ice with anti-CD16/CD32 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) (BD
Pharmingen, San Diego, CA) and then stained with fluorescently labeled
MAbs. In addition, some leukocytes were cultured overnight on anti-CD3
MAb-coated plates (BD Pharmingen) to which brefeldin A (Sigma) was
added for the final 4 h; the surface markers were stained,
and the cells were permeabilized for intracellular staining. The
fluorescent MAbs used for phenotypic analysis with a FACSCalibur
(Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA) were CD4-allophycocyanin,
CD8a-peridinin-chlorophyll protein (PerCP),CD8b.2-phycoerythrin, Gr-1-fluorescein isothiocyanate,
Mac-1-allophycocyanin, NK1.1-phycoerythrin, CD62L-phycoerythrin
(BD Pharmingen), IFN-
-fluorescein isothiocyanate, and
isotype controls (Caltag, Burlingame, CA). The percentage of apoptosis
was determined by annexin-V staining (BD Pharmingen), performed
according to the manufacturer's instructions. Splenocytes were cultured
with heat-killed L. monocytogenes or medium (control) for
72 h. IFN-
production in the culture supernatant was
determined by a capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, as
previously described
(29).
T-cell purification. T cells were enriched from single-cell spleen suspensions by magnetic cell sorting with indirect microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec, Gladbach, Germany). Briefly, cells were incubated with a combination of phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-B220 and anti-major histocompatibility complex class II MAb, followed by anti-phycoerythrin microbeads, before negative selection using an autoMACs (Miltenyi Biotec). Purification was confirmed by staining for the leukocyte markers CD3, CD4, CD8, Mac-1, and B220, using fluorescently labeled antibodies (BD Pharmingen) and analysis with a FACSCalibur. This procedure resulted in acquisition of T-cell populations whose purity was greater than 93%.
RNA purification and RTQ-PCR. Liver tissue was homogenized in 1 ml RNAzol trireagent (Sigma) and stored at 70°C. Extraction of total RNA, RNA purification, reverse transcription, and real-time quantitative PCR (RTQ-PCR) were performed as previously described (29). Primers for all target genes (Table 1) were designed using the Primer Express 1.5 software (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and were made by Proligo (Sydney, Australia). RTQ-PCR was performed with a PE Applied Biosystems model 7700 sequence detector. The identity and purity of the PCR product were confirmed by melting curve analysis. All data were analyzed using the PE Applied Systems Sequence Detector 1.7 software and were plotted as the increase in fluorescence intensity of the SYBR green reporter dye versus the cycle number. The threshold cycle number was used to quantify the target gene expression for each sample, using the comparative threshold cycle method. The results represented the expression of the target gene relative to the expression in WT uninfected mice.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. RTQ-PCR
primer sets
|
Immunofluorescence. Perfused liver tissue samples were snap frozen in optimal cutting temperature compound (Tissue-Tek, Sakura, Japan). Then 5-µm sections of the tissue were cut with a Cryostat (Microm, Walldorf, Germany), adhered to poly-L-lysine-coated (Sigma) slides, and fixed in acetone (BDH, Melbourne, Australia) for 10 min. The samples were rehydrated in PBS and then kept in a humidity chamber at 37°C, with two PBS washes between steps. Samples were blocked with 30% horse serum for 10 min before polyclonal rabbit anti-mouse inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) (Upstate Biotech, Lake Placid, NY) was added for 30 min. Anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G-fluorescein isothiocyanate (Silenus, Melbourne, Australia) was added for 30 min, and then antifade mountant [0.3% 1,4-diazabicyclo(2,2,2)octan (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany), 90% glycerol (BDH)] was applied.
Statistical analysis. Statistical analyses of the results of immunological assays and log-transformed bacterial counts were conducted using analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Student's t test. Fisher's least protected significance difference post hoc test was used for pairwise comparison of multigroup data sets. Survival was calculated with a Kaplan-Meier nonparametric survival plot, and significance was assessed by the log rank Mantel-Cox test. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant.
|
|
|---|
![]() View larger version (12K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. Delayed
bacterial clearance and increased susceptibility of memTNF mice to
Listeria infection. WT ( ), memTNF ( ), and
TNF/ ( ) mice were infected with
2,000 (A to C) or 200 (D) CFU of Listeria
intravenously. The bacterial loads in the spleen (A) and
liver (B) were determined by serial dilution of organ
homogenates at different times. The dotted line indicates the limit of
detection. The data are the means and standard errors for five mice per
group from one of three representative experiments. Significance was
determined by ANOVA. An asterisk indicates that the P value
was <0.02 for a comparison of memTNF and WT mice, and a dagger
indicates that the P value was <0.0001 for a
comparison of TNF/ and WT mice. Additional
groups of mice were monitored twice daily and euthanized if they
displayed signs of declining health. (C) Time to euthanasia
in three experiments following infection of WT (n =
19), memTNF (n = 19), and TNF/ (n = 11) mice with 2,000 CFU of Listeria. (D) Time to euthanasia in two
experiments following infection of WT (n = 21), memTNF
(n = 29), and TNF/ (n = 19) mice with
200 CFU of Listeria. Significance was determined by the log
rank Mantel-Cox test. A double dagger indicates that the P
value was <0.009 for a comparison of memTNF and WT mice; a
section sign indicates that the P value was
<0.0001 for a comparison of TNF/
and WT mice; and a paragraph sign indicates that the P value
was 0.0001 for a comparison of memTNF and
TNF/ mice. ns, not
significant.
|
![]() View larger version (22K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 2. Delayed
influx of T cells in livers of infected memTNF mice. WT ( ) and
memTNF ( ) mice were infected with 2,000 CFU of
Listeria intravenously. Livers were perfused, and single-cell
suspensions were prepared from uninfected and infected mice at
different times. Leukocytes were enumerated, stained for CD4, CD8,
Gr-1, Mac-1, and NK1.1, and analyzed by flow cytometry. The data are
the means and standard errors for five mice per group from one of two
representative experiments. Significance was determined at day 7 by
Student's t test. An asterisk indicates that the P
value was <0.04 for a comparison of memTNF and WT
mice.
|
![]() View larger version (15K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 3. T-lymphocyte
activation and IFN- secretion in spleens and livers of
infected memTNF mice. WT ( ) and memTNF ( ) mice were
infected with 2,000 CFU of Listeria intravenously. (A and
B) Single-cell suspensions were prepared from splenocytes and leukocytes from perfused
livers of uninfected and infected mice at different times. Leukocytes
were enumerated, stained for coexpression of CD4 or CD8 and surface
CD62L (A) or intracellular IFN- (B), and detected using flow
cytometry. (C) Splenocytes were cultured for 72 h with
heat-killed L. monocytogenes or medium alone, and
IFN- production was measured in the culture supernatant by an
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data are the means and standard
errors for five mice per group from one of two representative
experiments. Significance for the spleen values was determined by
ANOVA, and an asterisk indicates that the P value was
<0.05 for a comparison of memTNF and WT mice. Significance for
the liver values at day 7 was determined by Student's t test,
and a dagger indicates that the P value was <0.03 for
a comparison of memTNF and WT
mice.
|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 2. Percentages
of apoptotic cells in the livers of WT and memTNF
micea
|
IFN-
production is the hallmark of an
activated Th1 response. In the spleens of both WT and memTNF mice, the
peak number of IFN-
-producing T cells occurred by day 7 (Fig.
3B), although beginning on
day 5, cultures of spleen cells, which contained similar numbers of T
cells, from the two strains of mice produced similar levels of
IFN-
in response to heat-killed L. monocytogenes
(Fig. 3C). Examination of
the livers showed that while in WT mice the number of
IFN-
-secreting CD4+ T cells had risen
beginning on day 5 and remained elevated, in memTNF mice the expansion
of this population was delayed to day 7 postinfection (P
< 0.0004 at day 7). Infiltration of IFN-
-secreting
CD8+ T cells was comparable in the livers and
spleens of WT and memTNF
mice.
Enhanced and prolonged macrophage activation in memTNF mice.
Activation of macrophage antibacterial
functions is a key requirement for successful elimination of the
invading pathogen. It has previously been demonstrated that the enzymes
iNOS and LRG-47 are crucial for the development of protective immunity
against Listeria
(4,
17). The mRNA expression
in the livers of WT and memTNF Listeria-infected mice revealed
that the levels of both iNOS and LRG-47 increased in WT and memTNF mice
by 3 days postinfection and remained elevated in memTNF mice but not in
WT mice at day 7 (Fig.
4). Staining for iNOS expression in the liver demonstrated that in WT mouse
livers, iNOS expression was confined to a few discrete foci at day 3
and that there was slight enlargement by day 7 (Fig.
5A and
B).
However, iNOS was present throughout several larger lesions in memTNF
mice at day 3 and remained prevalent in larger regions of tissue at day
7 (Fig. 5C and D). In
vitro killing assays demonstrated that IFN-
-stimulated bone
marrow-derived macrophages from memTNF mice were as effective as WT
macrophages in killing Listeria (for WT mouse macrophages,
36.3% killing compared to unstimulated macrophages; for memTNF mouse
macrophages, 35.0% killing compared to unstimulated
macrophages).
![]() View larger version (42K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 4. Enhanced
macrophage activation in livers of infected memTNF mice. WT (black
bars) and memTNF (gray bars) mice were infected with 2,000 CFU of
Listeria intravenously. mRNA expression in the livers from
uninfected mice and infected mice was measured by RTQ-PCR to determine
the relative (rel.) expression of LRG-47 and iNOS. The data are the
means and standard errors for five mice per group from one of two
representative experiments. Significance was determined by ANOVA. An
asterisk indicates that the P value was <0.05 for a
comparison of memTNF and WT
mice.
|
![]() View larger version (66K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 5. Increased
inflammation, necrosis, and iNOS expression in memTNF mice. WT, memTNF,
and TNF/ mice were infected with 2,000 CFU
of L. monocytogenes intravenously. The photographs show
typical sections from one of five mice in two representative
experiments. (A to D) Perfused liver sections were frozen in optimal
cutting temperature compound, and 5-µm sections were stained
for iNOS expression and examined at a magnification of x200. (A
and B) WT livers on day 3 (A) and day 7 (B). (C and D) memTNF
livers on day 3 (C) and day 7 (D). (E to L) Perfused liver
sections were fixed in neutral buffered formalin, embedded in paraffin,
sectioned, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. (E, G, I, and K)
Magnification, x25. (F and H) Magnification, x400. (J and L)
Magnification, x200. (E and F) WT mice 5 days postinfection.
(E) Inflammatory foci, scattered throughout the tissue, were mostly
discrete and localized and consisted of tightly apposed mononuclear
cells. Several necrotic lesions also were evident. (F) The necrotic
lesions mostly consisted of a central core of degraded tissue
surrounded by neutrophils and mononuclear cells. (G and H)
TNF/ mice 5 days postinfection. (G)
Overwhelming hepatic destruction with intense inflammatory involvement
was observed throughout the preparation. Darkly staining neutrophils
appeared to radiate out from a central region of tissue degradation
through the remaining viable liver. (H) High-power view of the
interface (arrow in panel G) revealed disintegrated tissue, which was
surrounded by cellular debris and pyknotic matter. (I and J)
Nonmoribund memTNF mice 5 days postinfection. (I) Inflammatory foci
mostly consisted of mononuclear leukocytes and neutrophils, but they
were more frequent, larger, less organized, and less compact in memTNF
mice than in their WT counterparts. Most necrotic lesions comprised a
small area of purulent matter circumscribed by neutrophils and
mononuclear cells. Other necrotic lesions consisted of a central core
of degraded cells, predominantly neutrophils, surrounded by a region of
disintegrated tissue, which was in turn encircled by inflammatory
cells. (J) Enlargement (arrow in panel I) showing a central core of
dying inflammatory cells and hepatocytes surrounded by completely
necrotized tissue and a thin outer layer of leukocytes. (K and L)
Moribund memTNF mice 5 days postinfection. (K) Rampant cellular
infiltration and hepatic destruction. Darkly staining collections of
cells, scattered throughout the tissue, were composed primarily of
apoptotic bodies, neutrophils, and necrotic matter. (L) Enlargement of
a section (arrow in panel K) showing areas of complete tissue
destruction apparent throughout the
preparation.
|
In contrast to the distinct pathological phenotypes of infected WT and TNF/ mice, memTNF mice infected with 2,000 CFU of Listeria exhibited a spectrum of pathologies, particularly at day 5. Mice that appeared to be healthy exhibited an immunological response similar to that of the WT mice but showed increased pathology. The livers contained increased numbers of small compact foci per section, along with more frequent larger necrotic lesions (Fig. 5I and J). In addition, mice that appeared to be physically moribund (with ruffled fur, reduced mobility, and weight loss) showed liver pathology similar to that of the TNF/ mice (Fig. 5K and L). The memTNF mice that survived the early infection proceeded to clear the bacilli, and there was a progressive reduction in inflammatory lesions. Overall, clearance of the inflammatory foci was delayed in the memTNF mice compared with the WT mice, and larger numbers of inflammatory foci were still evident in memTNF mouse livers at 14 days postinfection (data not shown).
memTNF mice that received a low dose of Listeria also showed increased inflammatory responses in the liver, even though there was no delay in the clearance of bacteria. The inflammatory response in WT mice peaked at 5 to 7 days postinfection and was resolved by day 10. In TNF/ mice, extensive necrosis occurred in low-dose infections, as well as in high-dose infections (data not shown). The inflammatory response in the memTNF mice resembled that in the livers of memTNF mice that survived a high-dose infection. The inflammatory foci were discrete and localized but more extensive than those in WT mice. Moreover, the inflammatory response resolved more slowly in the memTNF mice than in the WT mice, and there were increased numbers of inflammatory foci in the liver at 10 days postinfection (data not shown).
Enhanced and prolonged expression of chemokine mRNA in memTNF mice. In order to determine whether the differences in accumulation of leukocytes observed in the Listeria-infected livers were due to altered chemokine expression, mRNAs for the monocyte/lymphocyte-attracting chemokines CCL3 and CCL4 and the neutrophil attractant CXCL1 were examined. Early neutrophil recruitment is essential for optimal protective immunity against Listeria infection (5), so initially we examined the response in the liver after only 24 h of infection. At this time, WT mice expressed 3-fold more CXCL1 mRNA than memTNF mice expressed (for WT mice, 15.56-fold increase compared with uninfected mice [range, 7.9- to 19.3-fold]; for memTNF mice, 5.48-fold increase [range, 4.3- to 6.3-fold]), although there was no early increase in CCL3 expression (for WT mice, 0.51-fold increase; for memTNF mice, 1.3-fold increase). We also examined expression of the chemokines CXCL1, CCL3, and CCL4 over the course of the listerial infection (Fig. 6). Expression of these three chemokines was elevated in all three strains of mice at day 3 and returned to the basal levels by day 7 in only the WT mice. In the memTNF mice, mRNA expression remained elevated at day 7 and did not return to the basal levels until day 14.
![]() View larger version (15K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 6. Enhanced
and prolonged chemokine production in livers of infected memTNF mice.
WT ( ), memTNF ( ), and
TNF/ ( ) mice were infected with
2,000 CFU of Listeria intravenously. mRNA expression in livers
was measured by RTQ-PCR to determine the relative expression of the
chemokines CCL3, CCL4, and CXCL1. The data are the means for five mice
per group from one of two representative experiments. The significance
of differences at day 7 was determined by Student's t test. An
asterisk indicates that the P value was <0.04 for a
comparison of memTNF and WT
mice.
|
![]() View larger version (40K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 7. Transmembrane
TNF is sufficient to control bacterial growth following a secondary
challenge with a lethal dose of Listeria. WT (black bars) and
memTNF (gray bars) mice were infected with 200 CFU of Listeria
intravenously. Eight weeks after the initial infection, naïve and
immune mice were infected with 105 CFU of Listeria.
The bacterial loads in the spleen (A) and liver (B)
were determined at 3 and 5 days postinfection. The dotted line
indicates the limit of detection. The data are the means and standard
errors for five mice per group from one of two representative
experiments.
|
![]() View larger version (20K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 8. Protection
against secondary Listeria infection does not require soluble
TNF. (A) WT and memTNF mice were infected with 200 CFU of
Listeria intravenously, and 8 weeks after the initial
infection, naïve and immune mice were infected with
105 CFU of Listeria. The data are the time to
euthanasia for between 8 and 10 mice/group. Significance was determined
by the log rank Mantel-Cox test. The asterisk indicates that the
P value was <0.001 for a comparison of immune and
naïve mice. (B) WT and memTNF mice were infected with
200 CFU of Listeria intravenously, and 14 days later,
single-spleen-cell suspensions were prepared from immune and
naïve mice, and T cells were isolated by negative selection
(CD3+, >90%). Two hundred colony-forming
units of Listeria and 5 x 106 purified T
cells were injected intravenously into
TNF/ mice that had been irradiated
24 h previously with 500 rads. The data are the time to
euthanasia for 11 to 15 mice/group. Significance was determined by the
log rank Mantel-Cox test. The dagger indicates that the P
value was <0.002 for comparisons of WT immune and WT
naïve mice and memTNF immune and memTNF naïvemice.
|
responses (data not
shown). |
|
|---|
This study is the first study to demonstrate that protective immunity to Listeria infection can be conferred by memTNF-expressing T lymphocytes. Thus, T-cell expression of transmembrane TNF is sufficient to permit effective T-cell migration and activation of infected macrophages with resolution of infection.
TNF plays an important role in establishing coordinated immune responses, in part through regulated recruitment of inflammatory cells, stimulation of adhesion molecule expression on endothelial cells, and induction of chemotaxis (32, 33). Our data confirm that neither soluble nor transmembrane TNF is essential for the upregulation of chemokine expression, but the regulation of chemokine mRNA is altered in the absence of soluble TNF. The initial expression of the neutrophil-recruiting chemokine CXCL1 was higher in WT mice at 24 h postinfection than in memTNF mice. As neutrophils play a major protective role in resistance to Listeria infection, the capacity of WT mice to recruit neutrophils quickly to the site of infection may be an important survival advantage. Furthermore, the relative expression of both CXC and CC chemokines was elevated in the liver 3 days postinfection, at the time of maximum listerial burden, but returned to basal levels in WT mice by day 7, when maximal recruitment of monocytes and granulocytes occurred. However, memTNF mice had increased levels of CCL3, CCL4, and CXCL1 mRNAs in the liver, which remained elevated at day 7 and did not return to basal levels until day 14 (Fig. 6). This increased chemokine expression in memTNF mice may have been a manifestation of a perturbed feedback loop, in which chemokine secretion was sustained until inflammatory stimuli were removed from infected cells by recruited leukocytes. Indeed, there was delayed listerial clearance in memTNF mice during a high-dose primary infection, and at day 7 postinfection memTNF mice showed a 40- to 50-fold increase in mRNA expression for the lymphocyte- and macrophage-recruiting chemokines CCL3 and CCL4. Overall, memTNF alone was less efficient than the combination of soluble and transmembrane TNF for initiating cell recruitment. Thus, while neither soluble nor transmembrane TNF is essential for chemokine induction, these molecules may instead be involved in establishing the multiple overlapping chemokine gradients in the extracellular matrix that tightly regulate the orientation of leukocytes (33). While soluble TNF can rapidly diffuse to reach target cells and stimulate production of chemotactic gradients, transmembrane TNF relies on cell-cell contact, which is unlikely to be as efficient on its own.
In addition to recruiting leukocytes, TNF is required for organization of the inflammatory infiltrate into discrete organized lesions (32). Consistent with previous reports (12), most inflammatory foci in TNF/ mice consisted of groups of heavily infected hepatocytes with predominantly neutrophilic involvement and rampant necrosis by day 4. memTNF mice also exhibited greater necrosis and had larger, more frequent and diffuse inflammatory lesions than WT mice, even though the total leukocyte numbers from digested livers were similar for the two strains. This may have been a reflection of the diffuse structure of inflammatory lesions in memTNF mice. The increased number of neutrophils, which was evident histologically in the lesions of memTNF and TNF/ mice, was not confirmed by the cytometric analysis, but this may have been due to the death of activated neutrophils sensitive to the mechanical stress of purification. Indeed, in our flow cytometric analysis, forward/side scatter gating on cellular infiltrate indicated that there was a higher percentage of dead cells in memTNF and TNF/ mice than in their WT counterparts.
In WT mice, a reduction in the bacterial load led to contraction of the response with a decline in the numbers of splenocytes and leukocytes in the liver. This homeostatic mechanism is crucial for minimizing immunopathology. By contrast, in memTNF mice, there was a delay in the clearance of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and in resolution of inflammatory lesions in the liver. Depletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells from TNF/ mice leads to reduced immunopathology and necrosis and to prolonged survival following Mycobacterium avium or Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection (7, 37). This suggests that soluble TNF has an immunoregulatory function that limits excessive Th1-type inflammatory responses.
The differential requirements
for soluble TNF and transmembrane TNF may also be partially due to a
signaling bias for either of the two TNF receptors. memTNF is thought
to signal predominantly through the proinflammatory receptor
TNFRII and not through the proapoptotic signaling receptor
TNFRI (10).
Furthermore, memTNF can also function as a receptor. Studies
have demonstrated that macrophages become refractory to
lipopolysaccharide stimulation and unresponsive to proapoptotic signals
following reverse signaling through memTNF
(14). However, the
percentages of apoptotic T cells isolated from the liver during
infection did not differ significantly for the WT and memTNF mice. This
suggests that apoptotic signaling through TNFRI either was not reduced
in the memTNF mice or was adequately compensated for by other available
apoptotic pathways. Along with regulating inflammation, TNF also acts
at other stages in the response to intracellular infection to provide
optimal activation of macrophages
(22,
37). TNF, in synergy with
IFN-
, induces macrophage activation with consequent increased
expression of iNOS and reactive nitrogen intermediates (Fig.
4)
(3,
8). These data demonstrate
that T-cell expression of memTNF alone is sufficient for T-cell
migration and subsequent macrophage activation. Furthermore, these data
demonstrate that macrophages do not need to express TNF to control an
otherwise lethal infection but instead can be adequately activated by
surface TNF expression on immune T cells alone.
Finally, the differential requirements for soluble and transmembrane TNF provide a potential explanation for the increase in infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis, reported in individuals who receive anti-TNF therapy. The recently introduced anti-TNF therapies, which have proven to be highly successful in the treatment of chronic inflammatory processes, including Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis (30), have been hampered by their interference with host cell immunity. The two commonly used TNF antagonists are the monoclonal antibody infliximab and the soluble TNFRII fusion protein etanercept (30). Infliximab, which has high affinity for both solTNF and memTNF, has been associated with a higher frequency of infectious complications, such as tuberculosis reactivation and listerial meningitis, than etanercept, which binds predominantly to solTNF (2, 9, 35). Indeed, this is consistent with our findings that memTNF is sufficient to orchestrate protective immunity against a low-dose Listeria infection but cannot fully compensate for the lack of solTNF during a high-dose infection. The development of inhibitors of soluble TNF which leave functional memTNF may allow TNF inhibition of inflammatory disease while sufficient protective immunity is maintained by memTNF (34).
We thank Jenny Kingham and her staff for excellent animal care and Nathan Field and Katie Hall for technical assistance.
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»