Endogenous pyrogen production by human blood monocytes stimulated by staphylococcal cell wall components

Abstract

To determine the properties of Staphylococcus aureus contributing to its pyrogenicity, we compared, in human monocytes, endogenous pyrogen production stimulated by heat-killed S. aureus with that stimulated by purified S. aureus cell walls or by particulate peptidoglycan prepared from the same strain. Peptidoglycan, but not the purified cell wall preparation, was found comparable to S. aureus as an endogenous pyrogen stimulus. This finding was associated with a more effective monocyte phagocytosis of S. aureus and peptidoglycan as compared with that of purified cell walls. Lysostaphin digestion of peptidoglycan markedly reduced its pyrogenicity. To test whether the chemical composition of the ingested particles is important, latex particles were tested as possible stimuli for monocyte endogenous pyrogen release. Although 40 to 68% of monocytes ingested latex particles during the first hour, there was no evidence of endogenous pyrogen activity in the supernatant even when supernatants equivalent to 5.2 x 106 monocytes were tested. This study demonstrates that the pyrogenic moiety of the S. aureus cell wall resides in the peptidoglycan component. Phagocytosis is not in itself a pyrogenic stimulus, but rather serves as an effective mechanism to bring about contact between the chemical stimulus and the monocyte.

Lysozyme-mediated aggregation and lysis of the periodontal microorganism Capnocytophaga gingivalis 2010

“….. lw ., on August 5, 2020 by guest http://iai.asm.org/ Downloaded from virulence potential. Depending on the degree of peptidoglycan hydrolysis, released cell wall fragments from lysing bacteria can have many biological activities, e.g., complement activation (24), pyrogenicity (46), polyclonal B-cell activation, and secretion of immunoglobulins (2,14). Moreover, persistence of resistant and undigested cell walls in periodontal tissues may lead to a prolonged inflammatory response (12,20).…”

Arthropathic properties of gonococcal peptidoglycan fragments: implications for the pathogenesis of disseminated gonococcal disease

“…However, the complement-consuming and the blastogenic activities appear to depend on highmolecular-weight, glycosidically linked oligomers for optimal activity. Similar structural features are apparently important for many of the biological activities mediated by PG ARTHRITOGENICITY OF GONOCOCCAL PG 601 from gram-positive bacteria, e.g., complement activation (12,37), pyrogenicity (22), and arthritogenicity (4,15).…”

Antibody response to teichoic acid and peptidoglycan in Staphylococcus aureus osteomyelitis

“…Another possibility that may explain the different results is the method of solubilizing the PG before its use in the assays. Whereas in the aforementioned studies PG was solubilized by either ultrasonication or digestion with lysozyme, we elected to eliminate solubilization of our PG preparation because of previous reports which indicated that its immunological activity may be lost if fragmentation is excessive (18,20). The antigenicity of our PG preparation was, however, verified in the ELISA with a hyperimmune rabbit anti-S. aureus serum in which an approximately five fold-increase in the OD405 value (0.700) was detected, as compared with that (= 0.145) with serum obtained before immunization (data not shown).…”