BALB/c mice deficient in CD4 T cell IL-4Rα expression control Leishmania mexicana Load although female but not male mice develop a healer phenotype
Journal Article
2011
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Journal Title
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Publisher
University of Cape Town
Faculty
Series
Abstract
Immunologically intact BALB/c mice infected with Leishmania mexicana develop non-healing progressively growing lesions associated with a biased Th2 response while similarly infected IL-4Rα-deficient mice fail to develop lesions and develop a robust Th1 response. In order to determine the functional target(s) for IL-4/IL-13 inducing non-healing disease, the course of L. mexicana infection was monitored in mice lacking IL-4Rα expression in specific cellular compartments. A deficiency of IL-4Rα expression on macrophages/neutrophils (in LysMcreIL-4Rα−/lox animals) had minimal effect on the outcome of L. mexicana infection compared with control (IL-4Rα−/flox) mice. In contrast, CD4+ T cell specific (LckcreIL-4Rα−/lox) IL-4Rα−/− mice infected with L. mexicana developed small lesions, which subsequently healed in female mice, but persisted in adult male mice. While a strong Th1 response was manifest in both male and female CD4+ T cell specific IL-4Rα−/− mice infected with L. mexicana, induction of IL-4 was manifest in males but not females, independently of CD4+ T cell IL-4 responsiveness. Similar results were obtained using pan-T cell specific (iLckcreIL-4Rα−/lox) IL-4Rα−/− mice. Collectively these data demonstrate that upon infection with L. mexicana, initial lesion growth in BALB/c mice is dependent on non-T cell population(s) responsive to IL-4/IL-13 while progressive infection is dependent on CD4+ T cells responsive to IL-4.
Description
Keywords
Reference:
Bryson, K. J., Millington, O. R., Mokgethi, T., McGachy, H. A., Brombacher, F., & Alexander, J. (2011). BALB/c mice deficient in CD4 T cell IL-4Rα expression control Leishmania mexicana Load although female but not male mice develop a healer phenotype. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 5(1), e930. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000930