EFFECTOR MOLECULES OF THE HOST-DEFENSE MECHANISM AGAINST MYCOBACTERIUM-AVIUM COMPLEX - THE EVIDENCE SHOWING THAT REACTIVE OXYGEN INTERMEDIATES, REACTIVE NITROGEN INTERMEDIATES, AND FREE FATTY-ACIDS EACH ALONE ARE NOT DECISIVE IN EXPRESSION OF MACROPHAGE ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST THE PARASITES
H. Tomioka et al., EFFECTOR MOLECULES OF THE HOST-DEFENSE MECHANISM AGAINST MYCOBACTERIUM-AVIUM COMPLEX - THE EVIDENCE SHOWING THAT REACTIVE OXYGEN INTERMEDIATES, REACTIVE NITROGEN INTERMEDIATES, AND FREE FATTY-ACIDS EACH ALONE ARE NOT DECISIVE IN EXPRESSION OF MACROPHAGE ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST THE PARASITES, Clinical and experimental immunology, 109(2), 1997, pp. 248-254
In this study, we evaluated the roles of reactive oxygen intermediates
(ROI), reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI), and free fatty acids (F
FA) as effecters of the macrophage-mediated host defence mechanism aga
inst Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). First, M. avium (three strains
) and M. intracellulare (two strains) were treated with the H2O2-Fe2+-
mediated halogenation system, acidified NaNO2-derived RNI, or FFA (lin
olenic acid) in sodium acetate buffer pH 5.5, and then counted for the
number of residual colony-forming units (CFU) of organisms. Although
these effecters exerted strong bactericidal activity against the MAC,
the susceptibility of test organisms markedly varied from strain to st
rain. There was no significant relationship between the degree of resi
stance of a given MAC strain to these effecters and its virulence in m
ice, indicating that ROI, RNI, and FFA each alone are not decisive as
the effector components of the host defence mechanism against the MAC.
Second, the increase in ROI-producing ability in murine peritoneal ma
crophages due to tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) treatment wa
s not accompanied by parallel potentiation of anti-MAC activity of the
same macrophage population. This excludes the possibility that ROI pl
ay a central role in macrophage-mediated killing and inhibition of MAC
organisms. Third, anti-MAC activity of BAM3 macrophage cell line was
not significantly attenuated by N-G-monomethyl-L-arginine (NO synthase
-inhibitor causing reduction of RNI production) or by quinacrine (phos
pholipase A(2)-inhibitor causing reduction of FFA release), indicating
that RNI and FFA each alone do not play crucial roles in the expressi
on of macrophage antimicrobial activity against the MAC. The present f
indings suggest important roles of collaborating actions of various an
timicrobial effecters and/or the participation of other kinds of effec
ters in macrophage-mediated killing and inhibition of MAC organisms.