Ivan Godinez

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium causes an acute inflammatory reaction in the ceca of streptomycin-pretreated mice that involves T-cell-dependent induction of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), interleukin-22 (IL-22), and IL-17 expression (genes Ifn-gamma, Il-22, and Il-17, respectively). We investigated here the role of IL-23 in initiating these inflammatory responses using the streptomycin-pretreated mouse model. Compared to wild-type mice, the expression of IL-17 was abrogated, IL-22 expression was markedly reduced, but IFN-gamma expression was normal in the ceca of IL-23p19-deficient mice during serotype Typhimurium infection. IL-23p19-deficient mice also exhibited a markedly reduced expression of regenerating islet-derived 3 gamma, keratinocyte-derived cytokine, and reduced neutrophil recruitment into the cecal mucosa during infection. Analysis of CD3(+) lymphocytes in the intestinal mucosa by flow cytometry revealed that alphabeta T cells were the predominant cell type expressing the IL-23 receptor in naive mice. However, a marked increase in the number of IL-23 receptor-expressing gammadelta T cells was observed in the lamina propria during serotype Typhimurium infection. Compared to wild-type mice, gammadelta T-cell-receptor-deficient mice exhibited blunted expression of IL-17 during serotype Typhimurium infection, while IFN-gamma expression was normal. These data suggested that gammadelta T cells are a significant source, but not the sole source, of IL-17 in the acutely inflamed cecal mucosa of mice. Collectively, our results point to IL-23 as an important player in initiating a T-cell-dependent amplification of inflammatory responses in the intestinal mucosa during serotype Typhimurium infection.

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium causes an acute inflammatory reaction in the ceca of streptomycin-pretreated mice. We determined global changes in gene expression elicited by serotype Typhimurium in the cecal mucosa. The gene expression profile was dominated by T-cell-derived cytokines and genes whose expression is known to be induced by these cytokines. Markedly increased mRNA levels of genes encoding gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), interleukin-22 (IL-22), and IL-17 were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Furthermore, the mRNA levels of genes whose expression is induced by IFN-gamma, IL-22, or IL-17, including genes encoding macrophage inflammatory protein 2 (MIP-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (Nos2), lipocalin-2 (Lcn2), MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta, and keratinocyte-derived cytokine (KC), were also markedly increased. To assess the importance of T cells in orchestrating this proinflammatory gene expression profile, we depleted T cells by using a monoclonal antibody prior to investigating cecal inflammation caused by serotype Typhimurium in streptomycin-pretreated mice. Depletion of CD3+ T cells resulted in a dramatic reduction in gross pathology, a significantly reduced recruitment of neutrophils, and a marked reduction in mRNA levels of Ifn-gamma, Il-22, Il-17, Nos2, Lcn2, and Kc. Our results suggest that T cells play an important role in amplifying inflammatory responses induced by serotype Typhimurium in the cecal mucosa.

Bacterial pathogens causing systemic disease commonly evolve from organisms associated with localized infections but differ from their close relatives in their ability to overcome mucosal barriers by mechanisms that remain incompletely understood. Here we investigated whether acquisition of a regulatory gene, tviA, contributed to the ability of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi to disseminate from the intestine to systemic sites of infection during typhoid fever. To study the consequences of acquiring a new regulator by horizontal gene transfer, tviA was introduced into the chromosome of S. enterica serotype Typhimurium, a closely related pathogen causing a localized gastrointestinal infection in immunocompetent individuals. TviA repressed expression of flagellin, a pathogen associated molecular pattern (PAMP), when bacteria were grown at osmotic conditions encountered in tissue, but not at higher osmolarity present in the intestinal lumen. TviA-mediated flagellin repression enabled bacteria to evade sentinel functions of human model epithelia and resulted in increased bacterial dissemination to the spleen in a chicken model. Collectively, our data point to PAMP repression as a novel pathogenic mechanism to overcome the mucosal barrier through innate immune evasion.

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium elicits acute neutrophil influx in the human intestinal mucosa within 1 or 2 days after infection, resulting in inflammatory diarrhea. In contrast, no overt symptoms are observed within the first 1 or 2 weeks after infection with S. enterica serotype Typhi. Here we show that introduction of the capsule-encoding viaB locus of serotype Typhi reduced the ability of serotype Typhimurium to elicit acute intestinal inflammation in a streptomycin-pretreated mouse model. Serotype Typhimurium requires a functional invasion-associated type III secretion system (type III secretion system 1 [T3SS-1]) to elicit cecal inflammation within 48 h after infection of streptomycin-pretreated mice, and the presence of the viaB locus reduced its invasiveness for human intestinal epithelial cells in vitro. However, a reduced activity of T3SS-1 could not account for the ability of the viaB locus to attenuate cecal inflammation, because introduction of the viaB locus into an invasion-deficient serotype Typhimurium strain (invA mutant) resulted in a significant reduction of pathology and inflammatory cytokine expression in the cecum 5 days after infection of mice. We conclude that a T3SS-1-independent mechanism contributes to the ability of the viaB locus to reduce intestinal inflammation.