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Infection and Immunity, December 2001, p. 7277-7284, Vol. 69, No. 12
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.12.7277-7284.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Enzyme Degradation and Proinflammatory Activity in Arthritogenic and Nonarthritogenic Eubacterium aerofaciens Cell Walls

Xiang Zhang,* Marja Rimpiläinen, Egle Simelyte, and Paavo Toivanen

Department of Medical Microbiology, Turku Immunology Center, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Received 4 June 2001/Returned for modification 7 August 2001/Accepted 4 September 2001

Two almost-identical strains of Eubacterium aerofaciens isolated from the normal human gut flora were used. The cell wall (CW) of one strain with a peptidoglycan (PG) type A4alpha induces chronic arthritis in the rat after a single intraperitoneal injection, whereas CW of the other with PG type A4beta induces only a transient acute arthritis. The CW of the arthritogenic E. aerofaciens was a twofold-more-potent stimulator of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha ) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) than the nonarthritogenic CW. After degradation with mutanolysin, the capacity of the arthritogenic PG to stimulate production of TNF-alpha and MCP-1 was significantly increased, whereas that of the nonarthritogenic PG was significantly decreased. In other words, after enzyme degradation the arthritogenic PG had a four- to fivefold-stronger stimulatory capacity than that of the enzyme-treated nonarthritogenic PG. These findings indicate that the arthritogenicity of CW or a PG is not dependent on the enzyme resistance alone but also on how the PG fragments released by enzyme degradation stimulate the production of proinflammatory cytokines.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Turku, Kiinamyllynkatu 13, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland. Phone: 358-2-333-7405. Fax: 358-2-233-0008. E-mail: xzhang{at}utu.fi.


Infection and Immunity, December 2001, p. 7277-7284, Vol. 69, No. 12
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.12.7277-7284.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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