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- Title
IL-33-Dependent Endothelial Activation Contributes to Apoptosis and Renal Injury in Orientia tsutsugamushi-Infected Mice.
- Authors
Shelite, Thomas R.; Liang, Yuejin; Wang, Hui; Mendell, Nicole L.; Trent, Brandon J.; Sun, Jiaren; Gong, Bin; Xu, Guang; Hu, Haitao; Bouyer, Donald H.; Soong, Lynn
- Abstract
Endothelial cells (EC) are the main target for Orientia tsutsugamushi infection and EC dysfunction is a hallmark of severe scrub typhus in patients. However, the molecular basis of EC dysfunction and its impact on infection outcome are poorly understood. We found that C57BL/6 mice that received a lethal dose of O. tsutsugamushi Karp strain had a significant increase in the expression of IL-33 and its receptor ST2L in the kidneys and liver, but a rapid reduction of IL-33 in the lungs. We also found exacerbated EC stress and activation in the kidneys of infected mice, as evidenced by elevated angiopoietin (Ang) 2/Ang1 ratio, increased endothelin 1 (ET-1) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression. Such responses were significantly attenuated in the IL-33-/- mice. Importantly, IL-33-/- mice also had markedly attenuated disease due to reduced EC stress and cellular apoptosis. To confirm the biological role of IL-33, we challenged wild-type (WT) mice with a sub-lethal dose of O. tsutsugamushi and gave mice recombinant IL-33 (rIL-33) every 2 days for 10 days. Exogenous IL-33 significantly increased disease severity and lethality, which correlated with increased EC stress and activation, increased CXCL1 and CXCL2 chemokines, but decreased anti-apoptotic gene BCL-2 in the kidneys. To further examine the role of EC stress, we infected human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro. We found an infection dose-dependent increase in the expression of IL-33, ST2L soluble ST2 (sST2), and the Ang2/Ang1 ratio at 24 and 48 hours post-infection. This study indicates a pathogenic role of alarmin IL-33 in a murine model of scrub typhus and highlights infection-triggered EC damage and IL-33-mediated pathological changes during the course of Orientia infection.
- Subjects
TSUTSUGAMUSHI disease; ENDOTHELIAL cells; APOPTOSIS; MICE; NITRIC-oxide synthases; WOUNDS &; injuries
- Publication
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2016, Vol 10, Issue 3, p1
- ISSN
1935-2727
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pntd.0004467