title: Nitric oxide production by Leishmania-infected macrophages and modulation by cytokines and prostaglandins.
abstract: Nitric oxide (NO) produced by an inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS or NOS2) plays a major microbicidal role in murine macrophages and its importance is now emerging also in the dog and human models. In dogs we demonstrated that macrophages in vitro infected with Leishmania infantum produced NO, after stimulation with cytokine-enriched peripheral blood mononuclear cell supernatants. In addition, parasite killing was reduced by the NOS inhibitor L-NG monomethylarginine. On the contrary, canine blood monocytes before macrophage differentiation did not release NO, and their leishmanicidal activity was instead correlated with superoxide anion and interferon (IFN)-gamma production. In human macrophage cultures, after infection with Leishmania infantum, we showed both iNOS expression by immunofluorescence and western blotting and NO release by the Griess reaction for nitrites. Various cytokines and prostaglandins can differently modulate NO synthesis. In our experiments, stimulation by recombinant human IFN-gamma and bacterial lipopolysaccharide greatly enhanced iNOS expression and NO production in human macrophages. In addition, the prostaglandin E2 increased NO release in activated, Leishmania-infected human macrophages. These results are interesting in the light of a possible immunological or pharmacological regulation of NO synthesis and microbicidal functions of macrophages.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Clinica Medica, Immunologia e Malattie Infettive, Sezione di Microbiologia ed Immunologia, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Bari, Policlinico, Piazza G. Cesare, 70124 Bari, Italy. brandoni@cimedoc.uniba.it
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Brandonisio
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Panaro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sisto
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Acquafredda
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fumarola
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leogrande
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mitolo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015232:Dinoprostone / Q000494:pharmacology; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000494:pharmacology; D018314:Leishmania infantum; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000378:metabolism*; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000469:parasitology*; D051379:Mice; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; D011453:Prostaglandins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019323:omega-N-Methylarginine
chemical_list: D001120:Arginine; D016207:Cytokines; D015232:Dinoprostone; D007371:Interferon-gamma; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; D011453:Prostaglandins; C092506:N(G)-monomethylarginine acetate; D019323:omega-N-Methylarginine; C496319:NOS2 protein, human; C496317:Nos2 protein, mouse