Indirect Toll-like receptor 5-mediated activation of conventional dendritic cells promotes the mucosal adjuvant activity of flagellin in the respiratory tract

The Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) agonist flagellin is an effective adjuvant for vaccination. Recently, we demonstrated that the adaptive responses stimulated by intranasal administration of flagellin and antigen were linked to TLR5 signaling in the lung epithelium. The present study sought to identify the antigen presenting cells involved in this adjuvant activity. We first found that the lung dendritic cells captured antigen very efficiently in a process independent of TLR5. However, TLR5-mediated signaling specifically enhanced the maturation of lung dendritic cells. Afterward, the number of antigen-bound and activated conventional dendritic cells (both CD11b(+) and CD103(+)) increased in the mediastinal lymph nodes in contrast to monocyte-derived dendritic cells. These data suggested that flagellin-activated lung conventional dendritic cells migrate to the draining lymph nodes. The lymph node dendritic cells, in particular CD11b(+) cells, were essential for induction of CD4 T-cell response. Lastly, neutrophils and monocytes were recruited into the lungs by flagellin administration but did not contribute to the adjuvant activity. The functional activation of conventional dendritic cells was independent of direct TLR5 signaling, thereby supporting the contribution of maturation signals produced by flagellin-stimulated airway epithelium. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that indirect TLR5-dependent stimulation of airway conventional dendritic cells is essential to flagellin's mucosal adjuvant activity.

NADPH oxidase deficient mice develop colitis and bacteremia upon infection with normally avirulent, TTSS-1- and TTSS-2-deficient Salmonella Typhimurium

Infections, microbe sampling and occasional leakage of commensal microbiota and their products across the intestinal epithelial cell layer represent a permanent challenge to the intestinal immune system. The production of reactive oxygen species by NADPH oxidase is thought to be a key element of defense. Patients suffering from chronic granulomatous disease are deficient in one of the subunits of NADPH oxidase. They display a high incidence of Crohn’s disease-like intestinal inflammation and are hyper-susceptible to infection with fungi and bacteria, including a 10-fold increased risk of Salmonellosis. It is not completely understood which steps of the infection process are affected by the NADPH oxidase deficiency. We employed a mouse model for Salmonella diarrhea to study how NADPH oxidase deficiency (Cybb^−/−) affects microbe handling by the large intestinal mucosa. In this animal model, wild type S. Typhimurium causes pronounced enteropathy in wild type mice. In contrast, an avirulent S. Typhimurium mutant (S.Tm^avir; invGsseD), which lacks virulence factors boosting trans-epithelial penetration and growth in the lamina propria, cannot cause enteropathy in wild type mice. We found that Cybb^−/− mice are efficiently infected by S.Tm^avir and develop enteropathy by day 4 post infection. Cell depletion experiments and infections in Cybb^−/−Myd88^−/− mice indicated that the S.Tm^avir-inflicted disease in Cybb^−/− mice hinges on CD11c⁺CX₃CR1⁺ monocytic phagocytes mediating colonization of the cecal lamina propria and on Myd88-dependent proinflammatory immune responses. Interestingly, in mixed bone marrow chimeras a partial reconstitution of Cybb-proficiency in the bone marrow derived compartment was sufficient to ameliorate disease severity. Our data indicate that NADPH oxidase expression is of key importance for restricting the growth of S.Tm^avir in the mucosal lamina propria. This provides important insights into microbe handling by the large intestinal mucosa and the role of NADPH oxidase in maintaining microbe-host mutualism at this exposed body surface.

Near surface swimming of Salmonella Typhimurium explains target-site selection and cooperative invasion

Targeting of permissive entry sites is crucial for bacterial infection. The targeting mechanisms are incompletely understood. We have analyzed target-site selection by S. Typhimurium. This enteropathogenic bacterium employs adhesins (e.g. fim) and the type III secretion system 1 (TTSS-1) for host cell binding, the triggering of ruffles and invasion. Typically, S. Typhimurium invasion is focused on a subset of cells and multiple bacteria invade via the same ruffle. It has remained unclear how this is achieved. We have studied target-site selection in tissue culture by time lapse microscopy, movement pattern analysis and modeling. Flagellar motility (but not chemotaxis) was required for reaching the host cell surface in vitro. Subsequently, physical forces trapped the pathogen for ∼1.5-3 s in "near surface swimming". This increased the local pathogen density and facilitated "scanning" of the host surface topology. We observed transient TTSS-1 and fim-independent "stopping" and irreversible TTSS-1-mediated docking, in particular at sites of prominent topology, i.e. the base of rounded-up cells and membrane ruffles. Our data indicate that target site selection and the cooperative infection of membrane ruffles are attributable to near surface swimming. This mechanism might be of general importance for understanding infection by flagellated bacteria.

Salmonella gut invasion involves TTSS-2-dependent epithelial traversal, basolateral exit, and uptake by epithelium-sampling lamina propria phagocytes

Salmonella Typhimurium causes diarrhea by infecting the epithelium and lamina propria of the intestinal mucosa and by secreting various effector proteins through type III secretion systems (TTSSs). However, the mechanisms by which Salmonella transverses the epithelium and is subsequently released into the lamina propria are poorly understood. Using a murine Salmonella-diarrhea model and in vivo microscopy, we show that epithelial traversal requires TTSS-1-mediated invasion and TTSS-2-dependent trafficking to the basolateral side. After being released into the lamina propria, the bacterium is transiently extracellular before being taken up by phagocytes, including CD11c(+)CX(3)CR1(high) monocytic phagocytes (MPs), which were found to constitutively sample cellular material shed from the basolateral side of the epithelium. Thus, Salmonella infects the cecal mucsa through a step-wise process wherein the bacterium transverses the epithelium through TTSS-2-dependent trafficking and then likely exploits lamina propria MPs, which are sampling the epithelium, to enter and replicate within the host.

Stromal IFN-γR-signaling modulates goblet cell function during Salmonella Typhimurium infection

Enteropathogenic bacteria are a frequent cause of diarrhea worldwide. The mucosal defenses against infection are not completely understood. We have used the streptomycin mouse model for Salmonella Typhimurium diarrhea to analyze the role of interferon gamma receptor (IFN-γR)-signaling in mucosal defense. IFN-γ is known to contribute to acute S. Typhimurium diarrhea. We have compared the acute mucosal inflammation in IFN-γR(-/-) mice and wild type animals. IFN-γR(-/-) mice harbored increased pathogen loads in the mucosal epithelium and the lamina propria. Surprisingly, the epithelium of the IFN-γR(-/-) mice did not show the dramatic "loss" of mucus-filled goblet cell vacuoles, a hallmark of the wild type mucosal infection. Using bone marrow chimeric mice we established that IFN-γR-signaling in stromal cells (e.g. goblet cells, enterocytes) controlled mucus excretion/vacuole loss by goblet cells. In contrast, IFN-γR-signaling in bone marrow-derived cells (e.g. macrophages, DCs, PMNs) was required for restricting pathogen growth in the gut tissue. Thus IFN-γR-signaling influences different mucosal responses to infection, including not only pathogen restriction in the lamina propria, but, as shown here, also goblet cell function.

In macrophages, caspase-1 activation by SopE and the type III secretion system-1 of S. typhimurium can proceed in the absence of flagellin

The innate immune system is of vital importance for protection against infectious pathogens. Inflammasome mediated caspase-1 activation and subsequent release of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-18 is an important arm of the innate immune system. Salmonella enterica subspecies 1 serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium, SL1344) is an enteropathogenic bacterium causing diarrheal diseases. Different reports have shown that in macrophages, S. Typhimurium may activate caspase-1 by at least three different types of stimuli: flagellin, the type III secretion system 1 (T1) and the T1 effector protein SopE. However, the relative importance and interdependence of the different factors in caspase-1 activation is still a matter of debate. Here, we have analyzed their relative contributions to caspase-1 activation in LPS-pretreated RAW264.7 macrophages. Using flagellar mutants (fliGHI, flgK) and centrifugation to mediate pathogen-host cell contact, we show that flagellins account for a small part of the caspase-1 activation in RAW264.7 cells. In addition, functional flagella are of key importance for motility and host cell attachment which is a prerequisite for mediating caspase-1 activation via these three stimuli. Using site directed mutants lacking several T1 effector proteins and flagellin expression, we found that SopE elicits caspase-1 activation even when flagellins are absent. In contrast, disruption of essential genes of the T1 protein injection system (invG, sipB) completely abolished caspase-1 activation. However, a robust level of caspase-1 activation is retained by the T1 system (or unidentified T1 effectors) in the absence of flagellin and SopE. T1-mediated inflammasome activation is in line with recent work by others and suggests that the T1 system itself may represent the basic caspase-1 activating stimulus in RAW264.7 macrophages which is further enhanced independently by SopE and/or flagellin.

TLR5 signaling stimulates the innate production of IL-17 and IL-22 by CD3(neg)CD127+ immune cells in spleen and mucosa

In adaptive immunity, Th17 lymphocytes produce the IL-17 and IL-22 cytokines that stimulate mucosal antimicrobial defenses and tissue repair. In this study, we observed that the TLR5 agonist flagellin induced swift and transient transcription of genes encoding IL-17 and IL-22 in lymphoid, gut, and lung tissues. This innate response also temporarily enhanced the expression of genes associated with the antimicrobial Th17 signature. The source of the Th17-related cytokines was identified as novel populations of CD3(neg)CD127(+) immune cells among which CD4-expressing cells resembling lymphoid tissue inducer cells. We also demonstrated that dendritic cells are essential for expression of Th17-related cytokines and so for stimulation of innate cells. These data define that TLR-induced activation of CD3(neg)CD127(+) cells and production of Th17-related cytokines may be crucial for the early defenses against pathogen invasion of host tissues.

fgf1 is required for normal differentiation of erythrocytes in zebrafish primitive hematopoiesis

Hematopoiesis in vertebrate development involves an embryonic, primitive wave and a later, definitive wave in which embryonic blood cells are replaced with adult blood cells. We here show that zebrafish fgf1 is involved in vivo in primitive hematopoiesis. Fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF1) morpholino knockdown leads to abnormal accumulation of blood cells in the posterior intermediate cell mass at 32 hr postfertilization. Expression of the erythroid markers gata1 and ika, normally diminishing in differentiating erythrocytes at this stage, is maintained at abnormally high levels in primitive blood cells. The onset of erythrocyte differentiation as assessed by o-dianisidine staining is severely delayed. Most fgf1 morphants later recover to wild-type appearance, and primitive erythrocytes eventually differentiate. Zebrafish fgf1 is syntenic to human FGF1, which maps to a critically deleted region in human del(5q) syndrome posing an increased risk of leukemia to patients. As its knockdown in zebrafish changes expression of gata1, a gene involved in hematopoietic stem cell decisions, FGF1 should be considered to play a role in the pathogenesis of del(5q) syndrome.