Enzyme degradation and proinflammatory activity in arthritogenic and nonarthritogenic Eubacterium aerofaciens cell walls.

Abstract

Two almost-identical strains of Eubacterium aerofaciens isolated from the normal human gut flora were used. The cell wall (CW) of one strain with a peptidoglycan (PG) type A4alpha induces chronic arthritis in the rat after a single intraperitoneal injection, whereas CW of the other with PG type A4beta induces only a transient acute arthritis. The CW of the arthritogenic E. aerofaciens was a twofold-more-potent stimulator of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) than the nonarthritogenic CW. After degradation with mutanolysin, the capacity of the arthritogenic PG to stimulate production of TNF-alpha and MCP-1 was significantly increased, whereas that of the nonarthritogenic PG was significantly decreased. In other words, after enzyme degradation the arthritogenic PG had a four- to fivefold-stronger stimulatory capacity than that of the enzyme-treated nonarthritogenic PG. These findings indicate that the arthritogenicity of CW or a PG is not dependent on the enzyme resistance alone but also on how the PG fragments released by enzyme degradation stimulate the production of proinflammatory cytokines.

• Authors: X Zhang, M Rimpiläinen, E Simelyte, P Toivanen
• Journal: Infection and immunity (Infect Immun) Vol. 69 Issue 12 Pg. 7277-84 (Dec 2001) ISSN: 0019-9567 [Print] United States
• PMID: 11705898 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Chemokine CCL2
• Muramic Acids
• Peptidoglycan
• Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
• Muramidase
• Endopeptidases
• mutanolysin

Topics

• Animals
• Arthritis, Infectious (etiology)
• Arthritis, Rheumatoid (etiology)
• Carbohydrate Sequence
• Cell Wall (immunology, metabolism)
• Chemokine CCL2 (biosynthesis)
• Digestive System (microbiology)
• Endopeptidases (metabolism)
• Eubacterium (classification, pathogenicity)
• Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections (complications)
• Liver (chemistry)
• Macrophages, Peritoneal (immunology)
• Molecular Sequence Data
• Muramic Acids (analysis)
• Muramidase (metabolism)
• Peptidoglycan (immunology, metabolism)
• Rats
• Species Specificity
• Spleen (chemistry)
• Synovial Membrane (chemistry)
• Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (biosynthesis)