title: Epithelial cell responses induced upon adherence of pathogenic Neisseria.
abstract: Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae colonize human mucosal surfaces and cause sepsis/meningitis and gonorrhoea respectively. The first step in the infection process is pilus-mediated adhesion of the bacteria to epithelial cells, followed by host cell invasion. Adhesion of pathogenic Neisseria elicits multiple responses in host cells, including cellular signalling events, cytokine production and modulation of the eukaryotic cell surface. We used microarrays to assess the respective involvement of 375 human cytokine and adhesion related genes during adhesion of piliated and non-piliated N. gonorrhoeae, and piliated encapsulated N. meningitidis to the epithelial cell line ME-180. We identified 29 differentially regulated genes not previously reported to respond to neisserial infections, many of which encode membrane proteins. Selected genes were further analysed by semiquantitative RT-PCR, and protein expression was examined by flow cytometry. We found that N. gonorrhoeae elicited a different inflammatory response than N. meningitidis and we also demonstrated that early adhesion events are responsible for the induction of specific genes. Our data create a new platform for elucidating the interaction between pathogenic Neisseria and target cells.
authors.affiliation: Microbiology and Tumor biology Center (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 16, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Laura.Plant@mtc.ki.se
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Plant
authors.forename: Vendela
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Asp
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lövkvist
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sundqvist
authors.forename: Ann-Beth
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Jonsson
mesh_terms: D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D002460:Cell Line; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000382:microbiology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins