Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been implicated in the regulation of host responses to microbial Ags. This study characterizes the role of TLR4 in the innate immune response to intrapulmonary administration of Haemophilus influenzae in the mouse. Two different strains of mice efficiently cleared aerosolized H. influenzae concurrent with a brisk elaboration of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, macrophage-inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, and MIP-2 in bronchoalveolar lavage and a corresponding mobilization of intrapulmonary neutrophils. Congenic strains of mice deficient in TLR4 demonstrated a substantial delay in clearance of H. influenzae with diminished IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, MIP-1α, and MIP-2 in bronchoalveolar lavage and a notable absence of intrapulmonary neutrophils. In TLR4-expressing animals, but not TLR4-deficient animals, TNF-α and MIP-1α expression was up-regulated in epithelial cells of the conducting airway in response to H. influenzae which was preceded by an apparent activation of the NF-κB pathway in these cells based on the findings of decreased overall IκB and an increase in its phosphorylated form. This study demonstrates a critical role of TLR4 in mediating an effective innate immune response to H. influenzae in the lung. This suggests that the airway epithelia might contribute to sensing of H. influenzae infection and signaling the innate immune response.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic respiratory pathogen that infects the majority of patients with cystic fibrosis, initiates host inflammatory responses through interaction with airway epithelial cells. The Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of pathogen pattern recognition receptors that play key roles in host innate immunity. In this study we aimed to determine whether TLRs mediate the interaction between P. aeruginosa and airway epithelial cells. Individual murine TLRs (TLR1 to TLR9) and dual combinations of these TLRs that activate an NF-B-driven luciferase reporter in response to PAO1 were screened in HEK 293 cells. TLR5, TLR2, a combination of TLR1 and TLR2, or a combination of TLR2 and TLR6 responded to PAO1. Another P. aeruginosa strain, strain PAK, activated TLR5 similarly, while the isogenic flagellin-deficient strain PAK/fliC and the flagellum-free bacterium Haemophilus influenzae failed to activate TLR5. Reverse transcription-PCR was used to probe the presence of multiple TLRs (including TLR5) in primary human airway epithelial cells (HAECs). Immunostaining with TLR5 antibodies showed that TLR5 was expressed in HAECs and on the apical surface of the human trachea epithelium. In HAECs, PAO1, PAK, and Burkholderia cepacia, but not flagellin-deficient strain PAK/fliC or a B. cepacia fliC mutant, activated the NF-B reporter. Dominant negative TLR5 specifically blocked the response to P. aeruginosa but not to the response to lipoteichoic acid, a specific ligand of TLR2. We also determined that MyD88, IRAK, TRAF6, and Toll-interacting protein (Tollip), but not TIRAP, were involved in the TLR-mediated response to P. aeruginosa in HAECs. These findings demonstrate that the airway epithelial receptor TLR5 senses P. aeruginosa through its flagellin protein, which may have an important role in the initiation of the host inflammatory reaction to clear the invading pathogen.
Host APCs are required for initiating T cell-dependent acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD), but the role of APCs in the effector phase of acute GVHD is not known. To measure the effect of tissue-resident APCs on the local development of acute GVHD, we selectively depleted host macrophages and DCs from the livers and spleens, but not from the skin, peripheral lymph nodes (PLN), or mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), of C57BL/6 (B6) mice by i.v. administration of liposomal clodronate before allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Depletion of host hepatic and splenic macrophages and DCs significantly inhibited the proliferation of donor C3H.SW CD8+ T cells in the spleen, but not in the PLN or MLN, of B6 mice. Such organ-selective depletion of host tissue APCs also markedly reduced the trafficking of allogeneic CD8+ T cells into the livers and spleens, but not PLN and MLN, of B6 recipients compared with that of the control mice. Acute hepatic, but not cutaneous, GVHD was inhibited as well, resulting in improved survival of liposomal clodronate-treated B6 recipients. When C3H.SW CD8+ T cells were activated in normal B6 recipients, recovered, and adoptively transferred into secondary B6 recipients, activated donor CD8+ T cells rapidly migrated into the livers and spleens of control B6 recipients but were markedly decreased in B6 mice that were depleted of hepatic and splenic macrophages and DCs. Thus, tissue-resident APCs control the local recruitment of allo-reactive donor T cells and the subsequent development of acute GVHD.
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