title: Salt, chloride, bleach, and innate host defense.
abstract: Salt provides 2 life-essential elements: sodium and chlorine. Chloride, the ionic form of chlorine, derived exclusively from dietary absorption and constituting the most abundant anion in the human body, plays critical roles in many vital physiologic functions, from fluid retention and secretion to osmotic maintenance and pH balance. However, an often overlooked role of chloride is its function in innate host defense against infection. Chloride serves as a substrate for the generation of the potent microbicide chlorine bleach by stimulated neutrophils and also contributes to regulation of ionic homeostasis for optimal antimicrobial activity within phagosomes. An inadequate supply of chloride to phagocytes and their phagosomes, such as in CF disease and other chloride channel disorders, severely compromises host defense against infection. We provide an overview of the roles that chloride plays in normal innate immunity, highlighting specific links between defective chloride channel function and failures in host defense.
authors.affiliation: *Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Genetics, and Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; and Department of Medicine, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, and Veterans Administration Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa, USA gwang@lsuhsc.edu william-nauseef@uiowa.edu.
authors.forename: Guoshun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: *Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Genetics, and Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; and Department of Medicine, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, and Veterans Administration Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa, USA gwang@lsuhsc.edu william-nauseef@uiowa.edu.
authors.forename: William M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Nauseef
mesh_terms: D002176:Candida albicans / Q000502:physiology; D002177:Candidiasis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D002712:Chlorides / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D019005:Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006997:Hypochlorous Acid / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D018375:Neutrophil Activation; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D010586:Phagocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D010588:Phagosomes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: C505032:CFTR protein, human; D002712:Chlorides; D019005:Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D006997:Hypochlorous Acid
keywords: hypochlorous acid; myeloperoxidase; neutrophil oxidants; phagocytes