Document Type

Article

Journal Title

Journal of neuroinflammation

Publication Date

Summer 6-15-2012

Volume

9

Abstract

Although IL-17A (commonly referred to as IL-17) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune disease, its role during CNS bacterial infections remains unclear. To evaluate the broader impact of IL-17 family members in the context of CNS infection, we utilized IL-17 receptor (IL-17R) knockout (KO) mice that lack the ability to respond to IL-17, IL-17F and IL-17E (IL-25). In this article, we demonstrate that IL-17R signaling regulates bacterial clearance as well as natural killer T (NKT) cell and gamma-delta (γδ) T cell infiltrates during Staphylococcus aureus-induced brain abscess formation. Specifically, when compared with wild-type (WT) animals, IL-17R KO mice exhibited elevated bacterial burdens at days 7 and 14 following S. aureus infection. Additionally, IL-17R KO animals displayed elevated neutrophil chemokine production, revealing the ability to compensate for the lack of IL-17R activity. Despite these differences, innate immune cell recruitment into brain abscesses was similar in IL-17R KO and WT mice, whereas IL-17R signaling exerted a greater influence on adaptive immune cell recruitment. In particular, γδ T cell influx was increased in IL-17R KO mice at day 7 post-infection. In addition, NK1.1high infiltrates were absent in brain abscesses of IL-17R KO animals and, surprisingly, were rarely detected in the livers of uninfected IL-17R KO mice. Although IL-17 is a key regulator of neutrophils in other infection models, our data implicate an important role for IL-17R signaling in regulating adaptive immunity during CNS bacterial infection.

MeSH Headings

Adaptive Immunity, Animals, Bacterial Load, Brain Abscess, Cell Movement, Immunity, Innate, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Knockout, Natural Killer T-Cells, Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta, Receptors, Interleukin-17, Signal Transduction, Staphylococcal Infections, T-Lymphocyte Subsets

ISSN

1742-2094

Rights

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

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