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Identification of an IFN--Producing Neutrophil Early in the Response to Listeria monocytogenes¹

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110

IFN- plays a critical role during the immune response to infection with Listeria monocytogenes. Early in the innate response NK cells are thought to be a primary source of IFN-; however, protection can be mediated by the presence of significant numbers of primed IFN--secreting CD8⁺ T cells. In this report, we examined the early response to Listeria and found that 18 h after infection spleens contain CD11b⁺, Gr-1^high, or Ly6G⁺ cells that produce significant IFN-. Morphological analysis of sorted Gr-1^highIFN-⁺ and Gr-1^lowIFN-⁺ or Ly6G⁺IFN-⁺ cells confirmed that these cells were neutrophils. The importance of IFN- production by these cells was further tested using adoptive transfer studies. Transfer of purified neutrophils from Ifng^+/+ mice led to increased bacterial clearance in Ifng^–/– mice. Transfer of Ifng^–/– neutrophils provided no such protection. We conclude that neutrophils are an early source of IFN- during Listeria infection and are important in providing immune protection.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants EY06765, EY015570, and EY02687 (Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Core Grant, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO), a Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY), and the Macular Vision Research Foundation.

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Thomas A. Ferguson, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid, Box 8096, St. Louis, MO 63110. E-mail address: ferguson{at}vision.wustl.edu

³ Abbreviation used in this paper: LM, Listeria monocytogenes.