Burkholderia cepacia is resistant to the antimicrobial activity of airway epithelial cells

There has been much interest recently in the antimicrobial properties of ca tionic peptides called P-defensins from epithelial cells. Human beta-defens in(hBD)-1 and -2 have been particularly implicated in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, where their inhibition by high salt concentrations may explain in part the susceptibility of the CF lung to bacterial infection. In this wor k, we have employed a simple co-culture system using the 16-HBE human bronc hial epithelial cell line to assess growth inhibitory activity against Pseu domonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia. In medium alone, P. aeruginosa proliferated more than 100,000-fold, whereas in the presence of 16-HBE cel ls or BG-HBE-conditioned medium, bacterial proliferation was less than 100- fold. Raising the salt concentration of cell-free 16-HBE conditioned medium to approximately 200 mM significantly reduced this growth inhibitory activ ity. In contrast, there was no evidence of epithelial-derived growth inhibi tory activity against two strains of B. cepacia. RT-PCR analysis indicated expression of the hBD-2 mRNA in 16-HBE cells, but not hBD-1. These data dem onstrate for the first time that B. cepacia is resistant to epithelial-deri ved antimicrobial substances and argue against them being important in the defense against this organism in the lung. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.