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Molecular and cellular mechanisms of Mycobacterium avium-induced thymic atrophy.

ABSTRACT: Thymic atrophy has been described as a consequence of infection by several pathogens and shown to be induced through diverse mechanisms. Using the mouse model of Mycobacterium avium infection, we show in this study that the production of NO from IFN-?-activated macrophages plays a major role in mycobacterial infection-induced thymic atrophy. Our results show that disseminated infection with a highly virulent strain of M. avium, but not with a low-virulence strain, led to a progressive thymic atrophy. Thymic involution was prevented in genetically manipulated mice unable to produce IFN-? or the inducible NO synthase. In addition, mice with a selective impairment of IFN-? signaling in macrophages were similarly protected from infection-induced thymic atrophy. A slight increase in the concentration of corticosterone was found in mice infected with the highly virulent strain, and thymocytes presented an increased susceptibility to dexamethasone-induced death during disseminated infection. The administration of an antagonist of glucocorticoid receptors partially reverted the infection-induced thymic atrophy. We observed a reduction in all thymocyte populations analyzed, including the earliest thymic precursors, suggesting a defect during thymic colonization by T cell precursors and/or during the differentiation of these cells in the bone marrow in addition to local demise of thymic cells. Our data suggest a complex picture underlying thymic atrophy during infection by M. avium with the participation of locally produced NO, endogenous corticosteroid activity, and reduced bone marrow seeding.

SUBMITTER: Borges M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3593108 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular and cellular mechanisms of Mycobacterium avium-induced thymic atrophy.

Borges Margarida M Barreira-Silva Palmira P Flórido Manuela M Jordan Michael B MB Correia-Neves Margarida M Appelberg Rui R

Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 20120824 7

Thymic atrophy has been described as a consequence of infection by several pathogens and shown to be induced through diverse mechanisms. Using the mouse model of Mycobacterium avium infection, we show in this study that the production of NO from IFN-γ-activated macrophages plays a major role in mycobacterial infection-induced thymic atrophy. Our results show that disseminated infection with a highly virulent strain of M. avium, but not with a low-virulence strain, led to a progressive thymic atr ...[more]

PMID: 22922815

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Project description:BackgroundMycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map) causes Johne's disease (JD), a chronic enteritis widespread in ruminants, resulting in substantial economic losses, especially to the dairy industry. Understanding the genetic diversity of Map in Australia will assist epidemiological studies for tracking disease transmission and identify subtype characteristics for use in development of improved diagnostic typing methods. Here we investigated the phylogenetic relationships of 351 Map isolates and compared different subtyping methods to assess their suitability for use in diagnostics and accuracy.ResultsSNP-based phylogenetic analysis of 228 Australian isolates and 123 publicly available international isolates grouped Type S and Type C strains into two distinct lineages. Type C strains were highly monomorphic with only 20 SNP differences separating them. Type S strains, when aligned separately to the Telford strain, fell into two distinct clades: The first clade contained seven international isolates while the second clade contained one international isolate from Scotland and all 59 Australian isolates. The Australian Type B strain clustered with US bison strains. IS1311 PCR and Restriction Enzyme Analysis (REA) intermittently generated incorrect results when compared to Long Sequence Polymorphism (LSP) analysis, whole genome SNP-based phylogenetic analysis, IS1311 sequence alignment and average nucleotide identity (ANI). These alternative methods generated consistent Map typing results. A published SNP based assay for genotyping Map was found to be unsuitable for differentiating between Australian and international strain types of Map.ConclusionThis is the first phylogenetic analysis of Australian Map isolates. The Type C lineage was highly monomorphic, and the Type S lineage clustered all Australian isolates into one clade with a single Scottish sheep strain. The Australian isolate classified as Type B by IS1311 PCR and REA is likely to be descended from bison and most closely related to US bison strains. Limitations of the current typing methods were identified in this study.

Project description:Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection is established following the ingestion of bacteria, their penetration of the intestinal mucosa and subsequent events of the host-parasite interaction. These bacteria invade M cells, macrophages and are capable of resisting host defenses and multiply to reach very high numbers intracellular. Mycobactrium avium subsp. avium (MAA) is an antigenically and genetically similar organisms but is relatively nonpathogenic for cattle. MAA organisms appear to infect cattle, but unlike cattle infected with MAP, cattle infected with MAA typically mount an effective systemic immune response, form caseous granuloma, and eliminate the infection. This study was designed to understand the similarities and differences in the host responses during MAP and MAA infection. Neonatal calves were infected (ligated ileal loops) with PBS, MAP, or avirulent MAA following which samples were collected at 30 min, 1h, 2h, 4h, 8h, or 12h. Post-infection, RNA was collected, processed, and then hybridized to custom bovine gene expression arrays, each of which represented 13,258 transcripts spotted in duplicate. Arrays were normalized by scaling against the average reference intensity value (i.e., average across all arrays), normalized by global mean, and then log transformed before statistical analyses were performed. Pairwise comparisons of averaged signal values and Student’s t test were performed using GeneSifter software (VizX Labs, Seattle, WA). A fold-change of at least 1.5-fold and a p value of 0.05 or less was required for a difference in signal to be considered statistically significant. When comparing the transcriptional responses of calves infected with the MAA versus MAP, unique patterns of expression were clearly visible. In general, numbers of transcripts altered in response to infection were much greater for MAA-infected animals than for those infected with the MAP. No genes were significantly up-regulated in MAP-infected animals at the earliest time point tested (30 min), and only modest numbers of genes were increased in expression over the experimental time course. On the other hand, up-regulated transcripts were detected by 30 min in MAA-infected animals and peaked by 2 hr. Differences in the numbers of down-regulated genes between MAP-infected and MAA-infected animals (compared to PBS-infected controls) were less pronounced. At the earliest time points, MAP-infected calves had a greater number of down-regulated genes than did animals infected with MAA. This trend was reversed at 8 and 12 hr post-infection. Keywords: Gene expression profiling by microarray

Project description:BackgroundMycobacterium avium subspecies avium (M. avium) is frequently encountered in the environment, but also causes infections in animals and immunocompromised patients. In contrast, Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis) is a slow-growing organism that is the causative agent of Johne's disease in cattle and chronic granulomatous infections in a variety of other ruminant hosts. Yet we show that despite their divergent phenotypes and the diseases they present, the genomes of M. avium and M. paratuberculosis share greater than 97% nucleotide identity over large (25 kb) genomic regions analyzed in this study.ResultsTo characterize genome similarity between these two subspecies as well as attempt to understand their different growth rates, we designed oligonucleotide primers from M. avium sequence to amplify 15 minimally overlapping fragments of M. paratuberculosis genomic DNA encompassing the chromosomal origin of replication. These strategies resulted in the successful amplification and sequencing of a contiguous 11-kb fragment containing the putative Mycobacterium paratuberculosis origin of replication (oriC). This fragment contained 11 predicted open reading frames that showed a conserved gene order in the oriC locus when compared with several other Gram-positive bacteria. In addition, a GC skew analysis identified the origin of chromosomal replication which lies between the genes dnaA and dnaN. The presence of multiple DnaA boxes and the ATP-binding site in dnaA were also found in M. paratuberculosis. The strong nucleotide identity of M. avium and M. paratuberculosis in the region surrounding the origin of chromosomal replication led us to compare other areas of these genomes. A DNA homology matrix of 2 million nucleotides from each genome revealed strong synteny with only a few sequences present in one genome but absent in the other. Finally, the 16s rRNA gene from these two subspecies is 100% identical.ConclusionsWe present for the first time, a description of the oriC region in M. paratuberculosis. In addition, genomic comparisons between these two mycobacterial subspecies suggest that differences in the oriC region may not be significant enough to account for the diverse bacterial replication rates. Finally, the few genetic differences present outside the origin of chromosomal replication in each genome may be responsible for the diverse growth rates or phenotypes observed between the avium and paratuberculosis subspecies.

Project description:The genetic similarity between Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and other mycobacterial species has confounded the development of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-specific diagnostic reagents. Random shotgun sequencing of the M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis genome in our laboratories has shown >98% sequence identity with Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium in some regions. However, an in silico comparison of the largest annotated M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis contigs, totaling 2,658,271 bp, with the unfinished M. avium subsp. avium genome has revealed 27 predicted M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis coding sequences that do not align with M. avium subsp. avium sequences. BLASTP analysis of the 27 predicted coding sequences (genes) shows that 24 do not match sequences in public sequence databases, such as GenBank. These novel sequences were examined by PCR amplification with genomic DNA from eight mycobacterial species and ten independent isolates of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. From these analyses, 21 genes were found to be present in all M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis isolates and absent from all other mycobacterial species tested. One region of the M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis genome contains a cluster of eight genes, arranged in tandem, that is absent in other mycobacterial species. This region spans 4.4 kb and is separated from other predicted coding regions by 1,408 bp upstream and 1,092 bp downstream. The gene upstream of this eight-gene cluster has strong similarity to mycobacteriophage integrase sequences. The GC content of this 4.4-kb region is 66%, which is similar to the rest of the genome, indicating that this region was not horizontally acquired recently. Southern hybridization analysis confirmed that this gene cluster is present only in M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Collectively, these studies suggest that a genomics approach will help in identifying novel M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis genes as candidate diagnostic sequences.

Dataset Information

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of Mycobacterium avium-induced thymic atrophy.

Publications

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of Mycobacterium avium-induced thymic atrophy.

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