Macrophages co-incubated with Candida albicans strain CR1 in vitro showed early signs of apoptosis, but evolved to
necrosis after 2 h. In this study, we investigated whether strain CR1 caused apoptosis or
necrosis of macrophages after its inoculation into mice peritoneal cavity, and whether this correlated with the secretion of
IL-10. Peritoneal macrophages from mice that received an inoculum of C. albicans CR1 showed signs of apoptosis and
necrosis from 30 min to 2 h afterwards, whereas heat-killed C. albicans did not cause those effects.
IL-10 production was low during the first 6 h post-
infection, when macrophages predominated in the peritoneal exudate, whereas its higher production after 24 h correlated with an increase of neutrophils in the exudate. Treatment of CR1 with
pepstatin (an inhibitor of
proteinases) prevented the process of apoptosis and significantly reduced
IL-10 production, suggesting that the increased production of
IL-10 was caused by processes occurring during the initial phase of
infection, such as apoptosis,
necrosis and uptake of death cells.