The spleen is an important organ for the host response to systemic bacterial infections. Many cell types and cell surface receptors have been shown to play role in the capture and control of bacteria, yet these are often studied individually and a coherent picture has yet to emerge of how various phagocytes collaborate to control bacterial infection. We analyzed the cellular distribution of Listeria monocytogenes (LM) in situ during the early phase of infection. Using an immunohistochemistry approach, five distinct phagocyte populations contained LM after i.v. challenge and accounted for roughly all bacterial signal in tissue sections. Our analysis showed that LM was initially captured by a wide range of phagocytes in the marginal zone, where the growth of LM appeared to be controlled. The cellular distribution of LM within phagocyte populations changed rapidly during the first few hours, decreasing in marginal zone macrophages and transiently increasing in CD11c 1 DC. After 4-6 h LM was transported to the periarteriolar lymphoid sheath where the infective foci developed and LM grew exponentially.Key words: Bacterial infection . DC . Listeria monocytogenes . Macrophages . Spleen
Supporting Information available online
IntroductionThe spleen is an important site for host responses to bacterial infection [1,2]. Within the spleen, bacteria may encounter various tissue resident phagocytes including macrophages, DC, and neutrophils [3,4]. Marginal zone macrophages (MZM) are positioned along the outer layer of the marginal sinus where they have direct access to bacteria entering the spleen from the circulation. These macrophages express MARCO (macrophage receptor with collagenous structure), a type-1 scavenger receptor, related to the SR-A family of receptors [5], which recognizes bacterial cell-wall-associated polyanions [6]. MZM also express the C-type lectin, SIGN-R1. SIGN-R1 binds dextran [7] and facilitates the capture of polysaccharide antigens on bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae [8]. A separate class of MZM, the metallophilic MZM (MMM), localize between the inner marginal sinus and the B-cell follicle [9]. These cells recognize sialic acid and LPS from Neiseria meningitidis [10] through Siglec-1 (sialicacid-binding-Ig-like-lectin 1) [11,12]. MMM have also been shown to produce interferon during Herpes simplex virus infection [13], but their role in bacterial infection is unclear, although it was reported that they produce CCL2 [14].Neutrophils play a crucial role in controlling bacterial infection [15][16][17][18][19]. They are present in the marginal zone (MZ) and
Results
LM enters a wide variety of phagocytes immediately after challengeWe found that the recovery of LM (EGD)-infected host cells from spleen was unreliable; $90% of LM CFU were lost in the process of isolating phagocytes and making single cell suspensions (Supporting Information Fig. 1). As an alternative, we developed an antibody staining approach, by which we identified five distinct phagocyte populations in spleen cryosections ( Fig....