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Cutting Edge |



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Departments of
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Dermatology,
Immunology, and
Atopy (Allergy) Research Center, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Departments of
Bacteriology and
¶ Biochemistry, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and
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Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan; and
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Department of Molecular Cell Immunology and Allergology, Advanced Medical Research Center, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| Abstract |
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, macrophage-inflammatory
protein-1
, IL-1
, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-13 in a
dose-dependent manner without causing degranulation. The present study
suggests that early activation of mast cells by VacA may be the host
early response to clear the bacteria and also may contribute to the
pathogenesis of H. pylori-induced
gastritis. | Introduction |
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Mast cells are known as the main effector cells in IgE-mediated allergic responses, but they also play important roles in innate immune responses against bacteria by releasing cytokines and by recruitment of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (12, 13). Although several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that mast cells participate in the gastric inflammation in H. pylori-infected peptic ulcer (9), it remained to be clarified the exact mechanisms of mast cell activation at the site of H. pylori infection.
In this study, we demonstrated that oral treatment of mice with VacA caused acute inflammation of gastric mucosa with mast cell accumulation. Moreover, we demonstrated direct activation of mast cells by VacA in vitro by showing the chemotactic activity, cytokine production through the binding of VacA to mast cells. Thus, this study has explored the role of this virulence factor in the activation of mast cells, which might be the initial host response to H. pylori infection, and discussed the possible involvement of mast cell activation by VacA in the pathogenesis of H. pylori-induced gastritis.
| Materials and Methods |
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BALB/c, C3H/HeN, and C3H/HeJ mice were purchased from Japan SLC (Hamamatsu, Japan). All animal experiments were performed under approved manual of the Institutional Review Board of Juntendo University (Tokyo, Japan).
Preparation of purified VacA and Ab to VacA
The purified VacA from toxin-producing strain H. pylori (ATCC 49503; American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA) and polyclonal Ab to VacA (14) were kindly provided by Dr. K. Yahiro and Dr. A. Wada (Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan). The preparation of VacA was done as previously described (14). In vitro vacuolating activity of VacA was tested using rapid neutral red uptake assay (15). Because acidic treatment was associated with activation and increased binding of VacA to the receptor of susceptible cells (16), for in vitro experiment VacA was activated by bringing the pH to 1.5 with 1 N HCl for 10 min, and then neutralized to pH 7 with 1 N NaOH.
In vivo administration of VacA to mice
Six-week-old BALB/c mice were deprived of food, but allowed free access to water. After 24 h, the mice received oral administration of saline (0.3 ml) or 20 µg of purified VacA in saline. BSA was used as a high protein control. The administration was repeated after 24 h. After a further 24 or 72 h, the mice were killed and the stomach was excised. The frozen sections were stained by H&E or Alcian blue-Safranin for histological evaluation.
Generation of bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs)3
BMMCs were generated from the femoral bone marrow of mice and
maintained in the completed medium in the presence of 10%
PWM-stimulated spleen-conditioned medium as a source of mast cell
growth factors, as previously described (13). After 4 wk
of culture, >99% of cells were identifiable as mast cells as
determined by toluidine blue staining and flow cytometric analysis of
cell surface expression of c-kit and Fc
RI.
Flow cytometric analysis of VacA binding to mast cells
BMMCs (1 x 106 cells/ml) were incubated with 10 µg/ml of activated VacA in balanced salt solution containing 2% BSA for 30 min on ice. After the cells were washed with balanced salt solution twice, the cells were incubated with 1 µg/ml of rabbit anti-VacA Ab, and then with 1 µg/ml of FITC-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG (Wako Pure Chemical, Osaka, Japan). The 2.4G2 (BD PharMingen, San Diego, CA) was used as IgG receptor-blocking Ab. The stained cells were analyzed by FACSCaliber (BD Immunocytometry Systems, Mountain View, CA).
Chemotaxis assay of mast cells
Chemotaxis assay of BMMCs was performed as previously described with slight modifications using membrane (5 µM pore size; NeuroProbe, Gaithersburg, MD) coated with human fibronectin (17). VacA in RPMI 1640 containing 0.5% BSA was added into the lower chamber (25 µl). A total of 50 µl of BMMCs (4 x 106 cells/ml) in the same medium were loaded in the upper chamber, and then incubated for 4 h at 37°C. The number of cells adherent to the underside of the filter was counted after staining the membrane with DiffQuick (Kokusai Shiyaku, Kobe, Japan). Stem cell factor (SCF) was used as a positive control.
Measurement of cytokine production from BMMCs
BMMCs (1 x 106 cell/ml) in complete
cultured media were stimulated with the indicated concentration of
purified VacA at 37°C. According to the preliminary study, the
optimal time for stimulation of BMMCs by VacA was 3 h for TNF-
and 6 h for IL-1
, IL-6, IL-10, IL-13, and
macrophage-inflammatory protein-1
. The levels of each cytokine in
the culture supernatants were determined by ELISA according to the
manufacturers instructions (Genzyme Techne, Minneapolis,
MN).
Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis of data was performed using the Student t test.
| Results and Discussion |
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Oral administration of VacA in mice caused several aspects of the
histological lesions in epithelium of gastric mucosa, namely loss of
gastric gland architecture including epithelial vacuolization, edema,
erosion, necrosis, and exfoliation 24 h after inoculation (Fig. 1
B). The marked infiltrations
of mast cells and mononuclear cells and a few eosinophils
were observed 24 h after inoculation (Fig. 1
, D and
F). The mast cells located in the mucosal layer had spindle
shape and less granules (Fig. 1
, G and H). In
contrast, the epithelium of gastric mucosa in control mice 24 h
after inoculation of saline did not show any lesion, with rare mucosal
mast cells (MMC) and no inflammatory cells (Fig. 1
, A,
C, and E). Administration of BSA as a high
protein control did not show any epithelial lesions nor histological
changes, as were seen in VacA-treated mice (data not shown). These
pathological changes were not observed 72 h after inoculation of
VacA with no mononuclear cell and less mast cell infiltrations (data
not shown). Interestingly, there was no significant neutrophil
infiltration in the epithelium during the course of experiment. This
result was consistent with the report that VacA itself did not cause
accumulation of neutrophils (7). In the more controlled
mouse model infected with H. pylori, the first signs of
gastric inflammation with mononuclear cell infiltration occurred 3 wk
after inoculation (4, 18). It is likely that bacteria
should colonize and multiply before the onset of disease, and that
simultaneously the VacA is gradually accumulated to the levels which
are enough for the development of the mucosal damage as observed in
this study. In humans, H. pylori infection produces a
predominant infiltration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes,
little evidence of mast cell infiltration, and usually no evidence of
epithelial vacuolization. The differences between this animal model and
human H. pylori infection may be partly explained by the
fact that we were observing very acute changes occurring within hours
of exposure to the toxin and not to whole bacteria, which has more
various effects on immune cells. Because H. pylori infection
in humans is a slow progression and the gastric disease becomes
manifest after prolonged infection, the early inflammatory changes are
difficult to recognize. Also, the production of neutralizing Abs to the
87-kDa protein (VacA) in sera of H. pylori-infected patients
(2) may help to neutralize the toxin; and therefore,
remove its effects of the chronic infection on gastric mucosa. Thus,
this model may be relevant to know some aspects of the immune responses
in initial acute phase of H. pylori infection.
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Using BMMCs, we next investigated whether the effects of VacA on
the accumulation of MMC in epithelium were a direct effect of VacA to
the mast cell. As shown in Fig. 2
A, BMMCs showed a migratory
response to VacA in a dose-dependent manner. Compared with the
potent-positive control, SCF, the chemotactic activity of VacA was
weaker. This effect of VacA was specific, because the treatment of
neutralizing polyclonal Ab to VacA abolished the migratory responses
induced by VacA (Fig. 2
B). To determine whether the
migratory responses induced by VacA were due to directional
(chemotaxis) or random (chemokinesis) activation of mast cells, we
performed checkerboard analysis. As shown in Table I
, in addition to the gradient-dependent
migration of BMMCs to various concentrations of VacA in upper
and lower wells, increasing concentrations of VacA in the upper wells
led to slight dose-dependent migration of mast cells to the lower
wells, suggesting that VacA has predominant chemotaxis activity and
slight chemokinesis activity. Thus, the accumulation of mast cells in
vivo after administration of VacA seems to be a direct effect of VacA
to the mast cells. Nevertheless, we cannot exclude the possibility that
there are indirect effects of VacA on MMC in vivo via the activation of
cells located in the gastric epithelium. Although we do not know where
so many mast cells migrated from to the epithelium within a day, the
vacuolization and disruption of gastric epithelial cell by VacA may
increase the penetration of VacA and the chance to interact with mast
cells in the lamina propria.
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Because BMMCs did show migratory responses to VacA, we also
determined whether VacA could directly bind to the BMMCs. As shown in
Fig. 3
, immunofluorescence FACS analysis
demonstrated that VacA could bind directly to BMMCs of BALB/c and
C3H/HeJ mice. We have previously demonstrated that VacA susceptible
cells expressed a VacA receptor (16), the receptor
protein-tyrosine phosphatase
. Although we have not investigated in
this study whether the direct binding of VacA to BMMCs was mediated by
the same receptor, receptor protein-tyrosine phosphatase
, it is
interesting to know that the activation of mast cells by VacA is
mediated by this receptor.
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Because activated mast cells have ability to produce various
cytokines that play important roles in recruitment and activation of
inflammatory cells, we next examined whether VacA enabled the
stimulated mast cells to produce and secrete proinflammatory cytokines
(19). As shown in Fig. 4
, BMMCs could respond to produce TNF-
, macrophage-inflammatory
protein-1
, IL-1
, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-13 upon VacA stimulation in
a dose-dependent manner. There were no significant differences in the
production of cytokines from BMMCs of three strains of mice, BALB/c,
C3H/HeN, and C3H/HeJ (p > 0.05), suggesting
that unlike the responses of LPS from H. pylori
(20), VacA-induced activation of mast cells was not
mediated by Toll-like receptor 4. The viability of BMMCs at 3 or 6
h after stimulation with VacA was >98%, indicating cytokine release
was not due to cytotoxic effect of VacA. The mucosal biopsy specimens
from patients with H. pylori infection contain significantly
elevated levels of TNF-
, IL-1
, IL-6, and IL-8 compared with those
in specimens from uninfected individuals (21, 22, 23).
However, it has been still unclear what products of bacteria do
stimulate host cells or which cells produce these cytokines in response
to bacterial products. Our results suggest that mast cell is the one
candidate for producing cells of these cytokines upon VacA stimulation.
Interestingly, the activation of mast cells did not lead to the
infiltration of neutrophil in vivo (24 and 72 h after
administration). We do not know the reason for that. VacA may not be a
proper stimulant for mast cells to produce TNF-
, which is thought to
be an important cytokine for recruitment of neutrophils
(12), because the levels of TNF-
produced by mast cells
upon VacA stimulation were not so high as those by other stimulant
(13). Furthermore, VacA itself failed to trigger the
release of
-hexosaminidase from BMMCs (data not shown). Because it
has been reported that H. pylori or H. pylori
extracts potentiate histamine release from rat serosal mast cells in
vitro and can induce mast cell degranulation in vivo (24),
molecules other than VacA in H. pylori extracts might have
degranulating activity for mast cells.
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In this study, we demonstrated that VacA, a toxin derived from H. pylori, could bind and directly activate mast cells for migration and production of proinflammatory cytokines. Although we still do not know what kinds of roles were played by these mast cells during H. pylori infection, it is possible that this might be a host early innate immune response to clear bacteria, and also this activation of mast cells by VacA may contribute to the pathogenesis of H. pylori-infected gastritis.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Chisei Ra, Department of Molecular Cell Immunology and Allergology, Advanced Medical Research Center, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo 173-8610, Japan. E-mail address: FceRICRA{at}med.nihon-u.ac.jp ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: BMMC, bone marrow-derived mast cell; SCF, stem cell factor; MMC, mucosal mast cell. ![]()
Received for publication October 24, 2001. Accepted for publication January 22, 2002.
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and interleukin-6 in patients with Helicobacter pylori associated gastritis. Gut 32:1473.This article has been cited by other articles:
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