Friday, October 04, 2013

Co-existence of classical and alternative activation programs in macrophages responding to Toxoplasma gondii

2013 Sep 28. pii: S0020-7519(13)00238-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2013.08.003. [Epub ahead of print]

Co-existence of classical and alternative activation programs in macrophages responding to Toxoplasma gondii

Source

Department of Medicine and Center for Immunity and Inflammation, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07101, USA.

Abstract

Pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages are critical for defense against intracellular pathogens while alternatively-activated M2 macrophages mediate tissue homeostasis and repair. Whether these distinct activation programs are mutually exclusive or can co-exist within the same cell is unclear. Here, we report the co-existence of these programs in Toxoplasma gondii-elicited inflammatory macrophages. This is independent of parasite expression of the virulence factor ROP16 and host cell expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6). Furthermore, this observation was recapitulated by IFN-γ and IL-4 treated bone marrow-derived macrophages in vitro. These results highlight the multi-functionality of macrophages as they respond to diverse microbial and endogenous stimuli.
Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

KEYWORDS:

Alternative activation, Classical activation, Macrophage, Toxoplasma gondii, Virulence factor
PMID:
24083945
[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

No comments: