Listeria monocytogenes infection alters content and function of extracellular vesicles produced by trophoblast stem cells
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ABSTRACT: Placental immunity is critical for fetal health during pregnancy, as invading pathogens spread from the parental blood to the fetus through this organ. However, inflammatory responses in the placenta can adversely affect both the fetus and the pregnant person, and the balance between protective placental immune response and detrimental inflammation is poorly understood. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-enclosed vesicles that play a critical role in placental immunity. EVs produced by placental trophoblasts mediate immune tolerance to the fetus and to the placenta itself, but these EVs can also activate detrimental inflammatory responses. The regulation of these effects is not well-characterized, and the role of trophoblast EVs (tEVs) in the response to infection has yet to be defined. The Gram-positive pathogen Listera monocytogenes (Lm) infects the placenta, serving as a model to study tEV function in this context. We investigated the effect of Lm infection on the production and function of tEVs, using a trophoblast stem cell (TSC) model. We found that tEVs from infected TSCs can induce the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α in recipient cells. Surprisingly, this tEV treatment could confer increased susceptibility to subsequent Lm infection, which has not previously been reported as an effect of EVs. Proteomic analysis and RNA-sequencing revealed that tEVs from infected TSCs had altered cargo compared to those from uninfected TSCs. However, no Lm proteins were detected in tEVs from infected TSCs. Together, these results suggest an immunomodulatory role for tEVs during prenatal infection.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE212928 | GEO | 2022/09/12
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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