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Infection and Immunity, February 2009, p. 685-693, Vol. 77, No. 2
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.00718-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Biology and Center for Infectious Disease, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057
Received 6 June 2008/ Returned for modification 3 August 2008/ Accepted 18 November 2008
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Giardia lamblia is a flagellated protozoan that infects the small intestine of humans and several other vertebrates, causing nutrient malabsorption, cramps, and diarrhea. It is transmitted principally by food and water contaminated with cysts shed from infected hosts. Estimates of human infections range from 0.2 to 1.0 billion per year, including
2.5 million cases per year in the United States (19). Most Giardia infections result in no overt symptoms to the host. One study determined that 60 to 80% of infected children in day care centers and their household contacts had asymptomatic giardiasis (27). Subjects with symptomatic giardiasis present with fatty diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and a malabsorption syndrome, severe forms of which result in weight loss and interference with normal mental and physical development in children (15). Symptomatic disease is not associated with overt inflammation, and the resultant diarrhea is thought to be due to a combination of nutrient malabsorption, epithelial barrier defects, and ion secretion (6, 15, 32, 41). Adaptive immune responses have been shown to be crucial for the control of this infection (16, 36). Recently, it was shown that epithelial cells cultured with Giardia released CCL20, a chemokine able to recruit DCs and T cells to the intestinal mucosa (36). However, no studies have yet been reported concerning the direct interactions between DCs and Giardia or their role during infection.
In the present study, we sought to characterize the DC responses induced by their interaction with G. lamblia by coincubating bone marrow-derived DCs with Giardia extracts. We show that G. lamblia is a weak activator of murine bone marrow-derived DCs, since extracts induce only small amounts of IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-
), compared to stimulation of DCs by LPS. Giardia does not induce DC production of IL-12 nor IL-10. Interestingly, Giardia extract potently inhibits the production of IL-12 and the expression of costimulatory molecules by TLR-activated DCs, while augmenting IL-10 production by these same cells. Finally, we show that IL-12 inhibition is primarily dependent on phophoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activity, since inhibition of this enzyme by its specific inhibitor, wortmannin, restored substantial amounts of Giardia-inhibited IL-12 produced by TLR-stimulated DCs.
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Antibodies and reagents. Recombinant murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) was obtained from PeproTech, Rocky Hill, NJ. Fluorescent antibodies for CD80, CD86, CD40, CD11c, CD11b, MHC class II (MHC-II) (Ad), and CD8a were obtained from Pharmingen, San Diego, CA. Anti-IL-10 receptor antibodies were kindly provided by Nancy Noben-Trauth of George Washington University, Washington, DC. LPS from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich, and ligands for TLR2, -3, and -9—PAM3CSK4 {N-palmitoyl-S-[2,3-bis(palmitoyloxy)-(2RS)-propyl]-[R]-Cys-[S]-Serl-[S]-Lys(4) trihydrochloride}, poly(I:C), and CpG DNA, respectively—were obtained from InvivoGen, San Diego, CA. Polymyxin B was obtained from Calbiochem, San Diego, CA. Aliquots of 1 mg/ml were made by dilution with sterile, pyrogen-free water and stored at –20°C until used. Rabbit polyclonal antibodies against extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and phosphorylated ERK were obtained from Cell Signaling, Inc., San Diego, CA. Wortmannin was obtained from Calbiochem, San Diego, CA, while the MEK1/2 inhibitor, U0126, was obtained from Cell Signaling, Inc. Drugs were dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at 100 µM, and aliquots were stored at –20°C until used. In experiments requiring drugs, DCs were pretreated for 30 min with the drugs before the other treatments were performed.
Cells and cell cultures. BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J female mice were obtained from Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, ME, and housed at the Georgetown University Comparative Medicine Animal Facilities. All mouse experiments were approved by the Georgetown University Animal Care and Use Committee. DCs were generated from mouse bone marrow according to a previously described protocol (30). Briefly, bone marrow from the femurs and tibias of mice was harvested in DC culture medium (RPMI 1640, 10% fetal bovine serum, 50 µM 2-mercaptoethanol, 100 U of penicillin/ml, 100 µg of streptomycin/ml, 20 ng of GM-CSF/ml) and grown in 100-mm petri dishes. Four million cells were seeded per dish in a total initial volume of 10 ml. Cultures were maintained in 5% CO2 atmosphere incubators at 37°C. Fresh medium with 20 ng of GM-CSF/ml was supplemented on day 3, while half of the culture medium was replaced with fresh medium and GM-CSF on days 6 and 8. Nonadherent cells were harvested on day 10 of culture and used as DCs. Cells were typically determined to be 80 to 90% CD11c+ by flow cytometry (data not shown). DCs were stimulated with Giardia extracts and/or TLR ligands in 24-well plates at a density of 106 DCs/well in 1 ml of medium for 18 h. Supernatants were then collected and stored at –20°C for cytokine measurements by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), while cells were stained with fluorescent antibodies for surface molecule analysis by flow cytometry.
ELISAs.
Cytokines in cell culture supernatants were measured by using the Pharmingen ELISA kits for mouse IL-12p70, IL-10, IL-6, and TNF-
. Aliquots of standards were prepared by diluting with 10% fetal calf serum in PBS at manufacturer-recommended concentrations and stored at –80°C. We strictly adhered to the manufacturer's recommended procedure. All samples were analyzed in duplicate. Optical densities were measured at 450 nm with a background correction at 630 nm, using the ELx 800 reader and the KCjunior software (Bio-Tek Instrumenets, Inc., Winooski, VT). The optical densities were converted to cytokine concentrations by using GraphPad Prism version 3.00 for Windows (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA).
Flow cytometry. Staining buffer for flow cytometry consisted of 4% adult bovine serum and 0.05% sodium azide in PBS. DCs were incubated with phycoerythrin-, fluorescein isothiocyanate-, allophycocyanin-, or phycoerythrin/Cy5 fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies against DC surface molecules in staining buffer for 20 min at 4°C. Cells were washed twice with 10 times the staining volume with PBS and fixed with 4% formaldehyde before analysis on a FACSAria flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). Only CD11c-expressing cells were analyzed.
Western blots. DCs were cocultured with Giardia extract, LPS, or both in six-well plates at cell concentrations of 5 x 106/ml. Cells were harvested and washed twice with PBS. Total protein was extracted by using mammalian protein extraction reagent (Pierce, Rockford, IL) and stored at –20°C until used. Samples of 20 µg of protein/lane were separated on 12% NuPage Bis Tris gels as recommended by the manufacturer (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). Proteins were transferred to nitrocellulose membranes, blocked with 1% bovine serum albumin in PBS, and incubated with anti-phospho-ERK1/2 and then horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-rabbit antibodies according to the specifications of the antibody manufacturer (Cell Signaling, Inc., San Diego, CA). Membranes were then incubated at room temperature for 1 to 2 min with Western blotting detection reagent (Amersham Biosciences, United Kingdom) before exposure to X-ray films. Blots were stripped with Restore-Western blot stripping buffer (Pierce) and reprobed with total ERK1/2 antibodies.
Statistical analyses. Data were analyzed by using Prism software v4.0 (GraphPad Software). Means of groups were compared by using Student t tests. P values of <0.05 were considered significant.
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FIG. 1. Response of mouse bone marrow DCs to G. lamblia. One million DCs were incubated overnight with medium alone (filled curves), 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml (dashed lines), or 10 ng of LPS/ml (solid lines). CD11c+ cells were analyzed for CD80 (A), CD86 (B), and CD40 (C) expression by flow cytometry. Overlap in the LPS and Giardia stimulated cells for CD40 expression obscures the Giardia trace. Culture supernatants were analyzed for IL-12p70 and IL-10 (D). For analysis of IL-6 (E) and TNF- (F), DCs were stimulated with 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml or 10 ng of LPS/ml in the presence or absence of 100 µg of polymyxin B/ml. IL-6 and TNF- production were also measured in response to titrated amounts of Giardia extract (G) or to live Giardia trophozoites (H and I) at a 10:1 parasite/DC ratio. This ratio was equivalent to a total protein concentration of 1 mg/ml, as was used for parasite extracts. Medium alone and 10 ng of LPS/ml were also used as controls. N.D., none detected. Flow cytometry data are representative of four independent experiments. Cytokine data are presented as means ± the standard error of the mean (SEM) of duplicate cultures and are representative of three or more independent experiments each.
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, Giardia-stimulated DCs produced no IL-10 or IL-12 and relatively small amounts of IL-6 and TNF-
(Fig. 1D to G). Combining data from multiple experiments utilizing different DC cultures and batches of extract, the median level of IL-6 produced by DCs stimulated with Giardia extract was 96 pg/ml (range, 38 to 359 pg/ml, n = 13), while unstimulated DCs failed to produce detectable IL-6. A similar analysis of TNF-
production found a median of 99.5 pg/ml (range, 0 to 630 pg/ml, n = 10). To determine whether the observed responses were due to the presence of small amounts of contaminating LPS, DCs were stimulated with either Giardia extract or LPS in the presence of polymyxin B. Although polymyxin B inhibited >95% of the IL-6 and TNF-
produced in response to LPS (P < 0.05), no inhibition of cytokine production in response to Giardia was observed, indicating that LPS contamination was not present (Fig. 1E and F). To define the active components of the extract, we stimulated DCs with extracts that had been heated to 65°C for 15 min. No decrease in activation was observed (data not shown), indicating that a conformational protein determinant may not be involved in DC activation. Similarly, the addition of up to 40 mM soluble N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), a sugar found on some Giardia proteins and recognized by the innate immune system, also failed to block the effect of the extract on DCs (data not shown).
Titrations of the extract were then used to stimulate DCs to determine the concentration-specific dynamics of DC cytokine secretion upon Giardia stimulation. Levels of IL-6 and TNF-
were detectable above background using as little as 40 µg of extract/ml. The production of both cytokines reached a plateau at between 0.2 and 1 mg of total Giardia protein/ml (Fig. 1G). In separate experiments, concentrations of up to 10 mg of total Giardia protein/ml induced cytokines in amounts similar to those induced by 1 mg/ml (data not shown). Given that the IL-6 and TNF-
responses to Giardia were relatively weak, we considered that live parasites might provide a better stimulus, as has been seen for the response of intestinal epithelial cells to Giardia (37). However, the addition of live trophozoites to DC cultures at a 10:1 parasite/DC ratio, such that total parasite protein concentration in culture was equivalent to those used in experiments with parasite extracts, produced cytokine responses no better than what was seen using parasite extracts (Fig. 1H and I). All further studies were therefore performed using parasite extracts since these provided better consistency among experiments. Together, these data suggest an intrinsic ability of Giardia extracts to only moderately activate DCs.
Giardia inhibits IL-12 production by LPS-activated DCs.
We considered the possibility that the selective and weak activation of DC responses might be due to the presence of inhibitory molecules in Giardia extracts. To address this possibility, titrated amounts of Giardia extract were added to DCs stimulated with LPS (Fig. 2). If an inhibitory component were present in the Giardia extract, we would expect to see a reduction in the responses to LPS. IL-6 production was inhibited in a dose dependent fashion (Fig. 2A). In five separate experiments, the average reduction in IL-6 production by 1 mg of extract/ml was 48% (P < 0.001, n = 12). The effect of 0.1 mg of extract/ml approached statistical significance (P = 0.059, n = 4). In contrast, TNF-
production (Fig. 2B) was inhibited only slightly (P = 0.15, n = 10). IL-10 production in response to LPS (Fig. 2C) was significantly enhanced by the addition of Giardia extract, but only with doses of
1 mg/ml. The average increase in IL-10 production by DCs stimulated with Giardia extract and LPS together was 84% compared to LPS alone (P < 0.01, n = 8). Finally, IL-12 production (Fig. 2D) was reduced
66% with as little as 0.1 mg of Giardia extract/ml (P < 0.05, n = 4) and was >90% reduced with 1 mg of extract/ml (P < 0.01, n = 12). Similar inhibition of IL-12 and enhancement of IL-10 production were seen using live parasites, as well as heat-treated extracts or in the presence of GlcNAc (data not shown). Thus, the absence of IL-12 and the low amounts of IL-6 in supernatants of DC cultures stimulated with parasite extract alone likely reflects the presence of both inhibitory and activating molecules in these preparations.
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FIG. 2. Inhibition of DC responses to LPS by Giardia extracts. DCs were cultured with the indicated amounts of Giardia extract, followed by addition of 10 ng of LPS/ml. IL-6 (A), TNF- (B), IL-10 (C), and IL-12p70 (D) were assayed in the supernatant by ELISA in duplicates. Cytokine data are presented as means ± the SEM of duplicate cultures. These data represent two independent experiments, and the effect of 1 mg of extract/ml was tested in at least four additional experiments with similar results. *, P < 0.05.
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FIG. 3. Inhibition of DC responses to multiple TLR agonists by Giardia extracts. DCs were incubated with or without 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml, followed by the addition of medium alone, 10 ng of LPS/ml (TLR4), 0.5 µg of PAM3CSK4/ml (TLR2), 25 µg of poly(I:C)/ml (TLR3), or 5 µg of CpG/ml containing oligodeoxynucleotide (TLR9). IL-6 (A), TNF- (B), IL-10 (C), and IL-12p70 (D) were assayed in the overnight supernatant in duplicates. Cytokine data are presented as means ± the SEM of duplicate cultures, and the data shown are representative of six or more independent experiments. *, P < 0.05 comparing cultures with or without Giardia extract.
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FIG. 4. Inhibition of DC surface molecule expression after treatment with Giardia extract and LPS. DCs from BALB/c bone marrow were cultured overnight with TLR agonists with (gray lines) or without (black lines) Giardia extracts as in Fig. 3. The cells were then stained with fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies to CD80, CD86, CD40, and MHC-II (Ad) and analyzed by flow cytometry. Only CD11c+ cells were analyzed. The data are representative of three independent experiments.
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FIG. 5. Effect of ERK activation on DC cytokine production. (A) DCs were incubated with 10 ng of LPS/ml, 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml, or both. Protein extracts were made 20 and 40 min after DC stimulation and Western blotted for phosphorylated ERK (p-Erk) or total Erk protein. DCs were pretreated with DMSO or the MEK1/2 inhibitor U0126 (10 µM) for 30 min prior to stimulation with 10 ng of LPS/ml, with or without 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml. (B and C) The levels of IL-10 (B) and IL-12p70 (C) were measured in supernatants of overnight cultures. Error bars represent the SEM of duplicate cultures. Western blot data are representative of three independent experiments. Cytokine data are presented as means ± the SEM of duplicate cultures and are representative of two independent experiments each.
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To more directly test whether IL-10 was responsible for the reduced production of IL-12 seen when DCs are coincubated with both Giardia extracts and LPS, DCs were pretreated with either IL-10 receptor antibodies (anti-IL-10R antibody) or control immunoglobulin G before stimulation with LPS and/or Giardia extract. Figure 6 shows that the amounts of IL-10 in supernatants of DCs stimulated with LPS alone or with Giardia extract increased with anti-IL-10R antibody treatment as expected, since these antibodies blocked the consumption of secreted IL-10. Even in the presence of anti-IL-10R antibody, however, Giardia extract alone did not induce any detectable IL-10. The addition of anti-IL-10R also led to a 100% increase in IL-12 production from DCs activated by LPS alone and a 500% increase in IL-12 from DCs activated by LPS and Giardia together (Fig. 6B). In the absence of anti-IL-10R antibodies, Giardia extract reduced IL-12 production in LPS-activated DCs by 81%. The addition of anti-IL-10R to DCs stimulated with LPS and Giardia led to a 70% reduction in IL-12 (P < 0.05, n = 4). However, the addition of anti-IL-10R to DCs stimulated with Giardia extract alone did not lead to any IL-12 production. Thus, IL-10 may contribute slightly to the reduced production of IL-12 but is unlikely to be the primary mechanism by which Giardia extracts inhibit IL-12 production by DCs.
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FIG. 6. Effect of IL-10 signaling on DC cytokine production. DCs were cultured with medium alone, with 10 ng of LPS/ml, with 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml, or with both LPS and Giardia extract in the presence of 10 µg/ml of either anti-IL-10R antibody or isotype control immunoglobulin G/ml. The levels of IL-10 and IL-12p70 were measured in supernatants of overnight cultures. Cytokine data are presented as means ± the SEM of duplicate cultures and are representative of four independent experiments.
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FIG. 7. Effect of PI3K signaling on DC cytokine production. (A to D) DCs were pretreated for 30 min with various concentrations of wortmannin prior to addition of 10 ng of LPS/ml with or without 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml. DCs pretreated with wortmannin were incubated with medium alone, with 10 ng of LPS/ml, with 1 mg of Giardia extract/ml, or both (C and D). The levels of IL-10 (A and C) and IL-12p70 (B and D) were measured in the supernatants of overnight cultures. Cytokine data are presented as means ± the SEM of duplicate cultures and are representative of four independent experiments. *, P < 0.05.
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were produced. Interestingly, IL-6 and TNF-
are the only two cytokines among several tested thus far that have been shown to be necessary for effective Giardia control in mice (5, 51, 52). We also found that parasite extracts altered responses to multiple TLR agonists, generally reducing induction of CD80, CD86, and MHC-II on the DC surface and reducing the production of IL-12 while enhancing the production of IL-10. Finally, we showed that parasite extracts continued to inhibit the production of IL-12 by DCs in the presence of anti-IL-10R antibodies, but only minimally after inhibition of PI3K with wortmannin. Although IL-10 is known to suppress IL-12 production (4, 14), blocking IL-10 through two different approaches failed to restore IL-12 production by DCs stimulated with Giardia alone. However, Giardia enhanced DC IL-10 production in response to TLR ligands (Fig. 5). Blocking activation of the ERK1/2 pathway with the MEK1/2 inhibitor U0126 did not reverse IL-12 inhibition by Giardia, despite the reduced production of IL-10 (Fig. 5). Moreover, blocking IL-10 signaling by adding neutralizing anti-IL-10R monoclonal antibodies did not restore IL-12 production (Fig. 6). Together, these data suggest that the augmented IL-10 plays only a minor role in the IL-12 suppression due to Giardia. Thus, an IL-10-independent mechanism of IL-12 suppression by Giardia exists.
The general pattern of DC response seen in these studies is most similar to those observed in response to SEA from the helminth parasite S. mansoni (10, 24, 49). SEA augmented IL-10 production from LPS-stimulated DCs and inhibited IL-12 production. The addition of anti-IL-10R antibodies also resulted in restoration of some IL-12 production by DCs stimulated with both SEA and LPS, but not DCs stimulated with LPS alone. An IL-10 independent mechanism was also clearly present in these studies as well. The PI3K/Akt pathway has been shown to mediate a negative regulation of TLR-induced IL-12 production, as well as that of other inflammatory cytokines (18, 21). We show that blocking this pathway with a specific inhibitor for PI3K, wortmannin, restores the majority of LPS induced IL-12 that is otherwise inhibited by Giardia (Fig. 7). In addition, wortmannin-treated DCs stimulated with Giardia extract alone were able to produce IL-12. Thus, PI3K activity plays a major role in the inhibition of DC responses to TLR signals by Giardia and may well be the IL-10-independent mechanism noted by Kane et al. (24).
The PI3K/Akt pathway has been proposed as an early mechanism of immune regulation in DCs, as opposed to pathways such as the suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) and the IL-1R-associated kinase-M (IRAK-M), which also negatively regulate IL-12 production, but only after its initial induction (17). Manipulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway may be a key approach in the management of immune pathology. Even at very high doses (2,000 nM) of wortmannin, the reversal of Giardia IL-12 inhibition was not complete (Fig. 7), suggesting that other mechanisms might be involved. Since cyclo-oxygenase activity has been shown to block IL-12 production, we also attempted to reverse the inhibition of LPS responses using indomethcain and aspirin, but these compounds had no effect in this system (data not shown). Several additional transmembrane protein immune regulators are known, such as the IL-33 receptor, suppressor of tumorigenicity 2, and the single immunoglobulin IL-1R-related receptor, both of which are members of the TIR superfamily of transmembrane receptors; the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand receptor; and the DC-specific ICAM-grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN) (28). DC-SIGN is highly expressed on immature DCs and has been shown to serve as recognition receptors for the internalization of several pathogens, including human immunodeficiency virus, by DCs and more recently S. mansoni SEA (43). Moreover, ligation of DC-SIGN on the DC surface leads to cytokine modulation in a PI3K- and ERK1/2-dependent manner (9). The Giardia trophozoite surface contains abundant amounts of carbohydrates of the GlcNAc family (38, 47), and there are indications of binding of GlcNAc sugars to DC-SIGN (50). The addition of soluble Glc-NAc, however, failed to block the inhibitory activity of Giardia extracts.
How DCs direct the development of T-cell responses during Giardia infection remains unclear. It has been well established that intestinal CD4+ and not CD8+ T cells are required for effective Giardia control (22, 33, 39, 46). However, IL-4-, IL-4R
-, STAT-6-, and IFN-
-deficient mice all control infections approximately as well as wild-type mice (40). The parasite's ability to inhibit IL-12 production is consistent with the lack of a requirement for gamma interferon. Although TNF-
has been shown to play a role in controlling infections (51), whether T cells produce this cytokine has not yet been addressed. The present study is the first to address the interaction between DCs and Giardia.
Modulation of DC responses to pathogens has been noted in several other infections. Presumably, a reduced response to the pathogen will benefit the microbe by extending the length of infection and allowing greater time for transmission to a new host. Reduced responses might also benefit the host, if immune-mediated pathology is a significant contributor to the disease. Unlike most intestinal pathogens, Giardia induces diarrhea without necessarily causing significant infiltration of neutrophils or macrophages (15, 32). The ability of Giardia to inhibit the production of IL-12 and enhance the production of IL-10 by DCs in response to other TLR agonists may play significant role in contributing to the maintenance of an anti-inflammatory milieu in the gut. Further studies to investigate the mechanisms of Giardia inhibition of DC might therefore provide novel ways to deal with chronic inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.
We thank Nancy Noben-Trauth for anti-IL-10R antibodies and Brian Kelsall, Dragana Jankovic, and Anne Rosenwald for critical reading and helpful discussions. We thank Karen Cresswell and the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center flow cytometry and animal core facilities for their assistance.
Published ahead of print on 1 December 2008. ![]()
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