No abstract

C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice are prototypical Th1- and Th2-type mouse strains, respectively. In the present study, we attempted to characterize the innate immune response of macrophages from these mouse strains. Macrophages from C57BL/6 mice produced higher levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin (IL)-12 than those from BALB/c mice after stimulation with macrophage-activating lipopeptide-2 (MALP-2, a synthetic TLR-2 ligand) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS, a TLR-4 ligand). The augmented IL-12 production by C57BL/6 macrophages increased interferon-gamma and, in contrast, decreased IL-13 production by CD4+ T cells. On stimulation with MALP-2 or LPS, C57BL/6 macrophages produced lysosomal enzyme and nitric oxide, effector molecules for bacterial killing, whereas BALB/c macrophages did not. Bactericidal activity of BALB/c macrophages was impaired relative to C57BL/6 macrophages when cells were infected with live bacteria in vitro. In a murine model of septic peritonitis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), BALB/c mice failed to facilitate bacterial clearance relative to C57BL/6 mice despite an augmented peritoneal leukocyte infiltration that was associated with increased peritoneal levels of cytokines/chemokines. BALB/c mice exhibited increased plasma and hepatic levels of cytokines/chemokines, resulting in an exaggerated systemic inflammation as determined by acute-phase proteins. Finally, BALB/c mice were vulnerable to CLP-induced lethality relative to C57BL/6 mice. Altogether, innate immune response of macrophages is different between these mouse strains, which may affect the development of Th1 and Th2 adaptive immunity in these strains. Reduced systemic inflammatory response in C57BL/6 mice that may result from an eminent local response appears to be beneficial during sepsis.

The contribution of neutrophils to lethal sensitivity and cytokine balance governing T1 and T2 host responses was assessed in a murine model of Legionella pneumophila pneumonia. Neutrophil depletion by administration of granulocyte-specific mAb RB6-8C5 at 1 day before infection rendered mice ∼100-fold more susceptible to lethal pneumonia induced by L. pneumophila. However, this treatment did not alter early bacterial clearance, despite a substantial decrease in neutrophil influx at this time point. Cytokine profiles in the lungs of control mice demonstrated strong T1 responses, characterized by an increase of IFN-γ and IL-12. In contrast, neutrophil-depleted mice exhibited significantly lower levels of IFN-γ and IL-12, and elevation of T2 cytokines, IL-4 and IL-10. Immunohistochemistry of bronchoalveolar lavage cells demonstrated the presence of IL-12 in neutrophils, but not alveolar macrophages. Moreover, IL-12 was detected in lavage cell lysates by ELISA, which was paralleled to neutrophil number. However, intratracheal administration of recombinant murine IL-12 did not restore resistance, whereas reconstitution of IFN-γ drastically improved bacterial clearance and survival in neutrophil-depleted mice. Taken together, these data demonstrated that neutrophils play crucial roles in primary L. pneumophila infection, not via direct killing but more immunomodulatory effects. Our results suggest that the early recruitment of neutrophils may contribute to T1 polarization in a murine model of L. pneumophila pneumonia.

Recent work has shown that deep generative models can assign higher likelihood to out-of-distribution data sets than to their training data [26,8]. We posit that this phenomenon is caused by a mismatch between the model's typical set and its areas of high probability density. In-distribution inputs should reside in the former but not necessarily in the latter, as previous work has presumed [6]. To determine whether or not inputs reside in the typical set, we propose a statistically principled, easy-to-implement test using the empirical distribution of model likelihoods. The test is model agnostic and widely applicable, only requiring that the likelihood can be computed or closely approximated. We report experiments showing that our procedure can successfully detect the out-of-distribution sets in several of the challenging cases reported by Nalisnick et al. [26].

Osteochondral injuries remain difficult to repair. We developed a novel photo-cross-linkable furfurylamine-conjugated gelatin (gelatin-FA). Gelatin-FA was rapidly cross-linked by visible light with Rose Bengal, a light sensitizer, and was kept gelled for 3 weeks submerged in saline at 37°C. When bone marrow-derived stromal cells (BMSCs) were suspended in gelatin-FA with 0.05% Rose Bengal, approximately 87% of the cells were viable in the hydrogel at 24 h after photo-cross-linking, and the chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs was maintained for up to 3 weeks. BMP4 fusion protein with a collagen binding domain (CBD) was retained in the hydrogels at higher levels than unmodified BMP4. Gelatin-FA was subsequently employed as a scaffold for BMSCs and CBD-BMP4 in a rabbit osteochondral defect model. In both cases, the defect was repaired with articular cartilage-like tissue and regenerated subchondral bone. This novel, photo-cross-linkable gelatin appears to be a promising scaffold for the treatment of osteochondral injury.