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Infect. Immun., 01 1998, 232-238, Vol 66, No. 1
DA Drevets
Listeria monocytogenes infection of endothelial cells upregulates surface
expression of adhesion molecules and stimulates neutrophil adhesion to
infected cell monolayers. The experiments presented here tested the roles
of specific bacterial virulence factors as triggers for this inflammatory
phenotype and function. Human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC)
monolayers were infected with wild-type L. monocytogenes or L.
monocytogenes mutants; then surface expression of E- selectin and
neutrophil adhesion were measured. The results showed that delta hly and
prfA mutants were the most crippled, requiring 100-fold more mutant
bacteria than wild-type bacteria for analogous stimulation. By comparison,
L. monocytogenes mutants with deletions of actA, inlA, inlB, inlAB, plcA,
and plcB resembled their parent strains, and a delta plcA delta plcB mutant
displayed decreased intracellular growth rate but only a minor decrease in
stimulation of E-selectin or neutrophil adhesion. Other experiments showed
that cytochalasin D-treated HUVEC monolayers bound bacteria, but
internalization and increased surface E- selectin and intercellular
adhesion molecule-1 expression were profoundly inhibited. However,
cytochalasin D had no effect on the HUVEC response to stimulation with
lipopolysaccharide or tumor necrosis factor alpha. These data suggest that
listeriolysin O production by infecting L. monocytogenes contributes to
increased expression of surface E-selectin and intercellular adhesion
molecule-1, but neither it nor intracellular replication are directly
responsible for this event. Nonetheless it is possible that listeriolysin O
potentiates the effect(s) of an other molecule(s) that directly triggers
this response. Additionally, cellular invasion by L. monocytogenes appears
to be critical for initiating the HUVEC response, potentially by providing
a signal which results in upregulation of the necessary bacterial genes.
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology
Listeria monocytogenes virulence factors that stimulate endothelial cells
Department of Medicine, R. C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University, Morgantown 26506-9163, USA. ddrevets@wvu.edu
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