The production of a new extracellular putative long-chain saturated polyester by smooth variants of Mycobacterium vaccae interferes with Th1-cytokine production.
Mycobacterium vaccae is of major pharmaceutical interest as an immunotherapeutic agent. Although M. vaccae 15483 ATCC(T) strain displays smooth and rough colonial morphologies on solid culture media, it is not known in which conditions M. vaccae switches from one colonial morphotype to the other or whether there are biological differences, especially immunological, between them. We have found that the change from a smooth to rough stable variant occurs spontaneously at 30 degrees C. The analysis of the composition of the cell wall in both variants showed that the smooth morphotype presents an extracellular material that has never previously been described and was identified as a long-chain saturated polyester that, interestingly, is not produced by the rough morphotype. Our results also indicate that this compound could be implicated in the spreading ability of smooth colonies. Proliferation, IFN-gamma and IL-12(p40) production by splenocyte cultures was significantly higher in mice immunised with the rough variant compared with those immunised with the smooth one. This latter finding suggests that the different colonial morphology of M. vaccae may affect the immunomodulatory effects induced from M. vaccae preparations.
Rodríguez-Güell
Elisabeth
E
Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.
Agustí
Gemma
G
Corominas
Mercè
M
Cardona
Pere-Joan
PJ
Casals
Isidre
I
Parella
Teodor
T
Sempere
Marco-Antonio
MA
Luquin
Marina
M
Julián
Esther
E
D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000032:analysis; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000378:metabolism; D053762:Interleukin-12 Subunit p40 / Q000378:metabolism; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000378:metabolism; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D011091:Polyesters / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology*
D016207:Cytokines; D006017:Glycolipids; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D053762:Interleukin-12 Subunit p40; D008055:Lipids; D011091:Polyesters; D016753:Interleukin-10; D015847:Interleukin-4; D007371:Interferon-gamma