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Hypoxia-Mediated Impairment of the Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Inhibits the Bactericidal Activity of Macrophages

Wiese, Melanie and Gerlach, Roman G and Popp, Isabel and Matuszak, Jasmin and Mahapatro, Mousumi and Castiglione, Kirstin and Chakravortty, Dipshikha and Willam, Carsten and Hensel, Michael and Bogdan, Christian and Jantsch, Jonathan (2012) Hypoxia-Mediated Impairment of the Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Inhibits the Bactericidal Activity of Macrophages. In: Infection and Immunity, 80 (4). pp. 1455-1466.

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Official URL: http://iai.asm.org/content/80/4/1455

Abstract

In infected tissues oxygen tensions are low. As innate immune cells have to operate under these conditions, we analyzed the ability of macrophages (M phi) to kill Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus in a hypoxic microenvironment. Oxygen restriction did not promote intracellular bacterial growth but did impair the bactericidal activity of the host cells against both pathogens. This correlated with a decreased production of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) and reactive nitrogen intermediates. Experiments with phagocyte NADPH oxidase (PHOX) and inducible NO synthase (NOS2) double-deficient M phi revealed that in E. coli- or S. aureus-infected cells the reduced antibacterial activity during hypoxia was either entirely or partially independent of the diminished PHOX and NOS2 activity. Hypoxia impaired the mitochondrial activity of infected M phi. Inhibition of the mitochondrial respiratory chain activity during normoxia (using rotenone or antimycin A) completely or partially mimicked the defective antibacterial activity observed in hypoxic E. coli-or S. aureus-infected wild-type M phi, respectively. Accordingly, inhibition of the respiratory chain of S. aureus-infected, normoxic PHOX-/- NOS2(-/-) M phi further raised the bacterial burden of the cells, which reached the level measured in hypoxic PHOX-/- NOS2(-/-) M phi cultures. Our data demonstrate that the reduced killing of S. aureus or E. coli during hypoxia is not simply due to a lack of PHOX and NOS2 activity but partially or completely results from an impaired mitochondrial antibacterial effector function. Since pharmacological inhibition of the respiratory chain raised the generation of ROI but nevertheless phenocopied the effect of hypoxia, ROI can be excluded as the mechanism underlying the antimicrobial activity of mitochondria.

Item Type: Journal Article
Publication: Infection and Immunity
Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
Additional Information: Copyright of this article belongs to American Society for Microbiology.
Department/Centre: Division of Biological Sciences > Microbiology & Cell Biology
Date Deposited: 01 May 2012 10:20
Last Modified: 01 May 2012 10:20
URI: http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/44336

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