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1 Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, UMR S 712, Paris, France
2 Inserm UMR S 712, Hôpital St-Antoine, F-75012 Paris, France
3 CRPP, Faculty of Medicine, University of Liège, B-4020 Liège, Belgium
4 Laboratory of Respiratory Biology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
5 Department of Immunology, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
6 INRA, UR1282, Infectiologie Animale et Santé Publique, IASP, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Correspondence
Pierre Aucouturier
aucouturier{at}st-antoine.inserm.fr
| ABSTRACT |
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Present address: Centre for Research in Vascular Biology, BioSciences Institute, University College, Cork, Ireland. ![]()
Present address: INRA, UE1277, Plate-Forme d'Infectiologie Expérimentale, PFIE, 37380 Nouzilly, France. ![]()
| INTRODUCTION |
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Among circulating immune cells, blood lymphocytes were found to bear little or undetectable amounts of prion infectivity (Raeber et al., 1999
). Recent studies have pointed out a possible role of haematopoietic dendritic cells (DCs) in the uptake and transport of prions. Indeed, DCs display unique functions of antigen capture and migration from sites of entry to secondary lymphoid organs (review in Randolph et al., 2005
), making them appropriate candidates for prion dissemination. Certain observations in natural and experimental TSE support the possibility of DC involvement: in sheep scrapie, PrPSc was detected in cells of the Peyer's patches expressing CD68, a marker of the mononuclear phagocyte lineages (Andreoletti et al., 2000
); another study revealed infected DCs in the mesenteric lymph shortly after oral administration of scrapie-associated fibrils to rats (Huang et al., 2002
); PrPSc-positive DCs and macrophages were demonstrated in vessel walls of CreutzfeldtJakob disease patients (Koperek et al., 2002
). Finally, intravenously injected DCs proved sufficient to provoke scrapie in immunodeficient mice (Aucouturier et al., 2001
) and were even detected in the brain parenchyma of certain prion-infected mice (Rosicarelli et al., 2005
). However, although DCs are involved in early stages of prion infections, their actual contribution to TSE pathogenesis remains to be evaluated.
Immature DCs are continually recruited in the mucosa and skin for sampling antigens. Following interaction with antigens and activation, they express membrane chemokine receptor CCR7 and become able to migrate to secondary lymphoid organs. The paucity of lymph node T cells (plt) mutation occurs on mouse chromosome 4 and results in recessive loss of expression of both functional CCL19 and CCL21-Ser genes (Nakano et al., 1998
). CCL19 and CCL21 are natural ligands of CCR7 involved in the migration of naive T cells and activated DCs into T-cell zones of lymphoid organs. As a consequence of deficient expression of these chemokines, the number of DCs in the lymph nodes of plt mice is reduced approximately threefold and their migration after contact sensitization is strongly affected (Gunn et al., 1999
; Vassileva et al., 1999
). While the total number of DCs in the spleen remains normal in plt C57BL/6 mice, their distribution is altered due to deficient migration from the periphery and into the white pulp. Except for deficient T-cell zones, plt mice display normal lymphoid histological organization in spleen, lymph nodes and gut-associated lymphoid tissue; they have no impairment of germinal centre reaction and the lymphoid microarchitecture is not disturbed (Mori et al., 2001
and unpublished personal data). Thus, the plt mouse represents an interesting model for studying DC migration from peripheral mucosa and skin to lymphoid follicles (Randolph et al., 2005
).
In an attempt to evaluate the participation of DCs in prion spreading, we infected plt mice with two scrapie strains using different routes of inoculation. While viable DCs accelerate disease onset as compared with killed DCs, the plt mutation has little or no effect on scrapie pathogenesis.
| METHODS |
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Disease monitoring.
Mice were monitored twice a week for clinical disease starting at 10 weeks after infection, by observing their activity levels and competence on a set of parallel bars as described previously (Aucouturier et al., 2001
).
Determination of the infectious titres in brain homogenates and cell suspensions.
Serial log10 dilutions of brain pool homogenates from mice infected with either the 139A or the ME7 scrapie strain were inoculated intracerebrally into 8-week-old C57BL/6 mice. Doses leading to 50 % infection by intracerebral inoculation (ID50) were calculated for each inoculum using the SpearmanKärber method.
DCs were inoculated similarly by the intracerebral route and survival periods were used to deduce the titre of cell suspensions from brain titration curves.
Immunofluorescence studies of lymphoid structures.
DC distribution in spleen was revealed on frozen sections with phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-CD11c monoclonal antibody (clone N418; Pharmingen). Preparations were counterstained with DAPI (Sigma-Aldrich).
For the analyses of nerve fibres and endings, cryosections of Peyer's patches, mesenteric lymph nodes and spleens were incubated for 1 h at room temperature with rabbit primary antibodies directed to intermediate neurofilaments subunits M (150 kDa) and L (68 kDa) (Chemicon), glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) (Dako) and synaptophysin (Chemicon), and revealed with a tetramethyl-rhodamine-conjugated goat anti-rabbit secondary antibody (Molecular Probe). Negative controls without primary antibodies were tested. Immature B-cells were immuno-stained by fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled rat anti-IgD antibody (BD-Biosciences). All samples were observed with a Leica TCS SP2 confocal microscope. Ten micrometre cryosections were scanned on their best fluorescent zone (57 µm), which was divided into 15 sections.
Inoculation of C57BL/6 mice with scrapie-infected DCs.
CD11c+ DCs were isolated from spleens of 139A-infected mice at 1012 weeks post-inoculation (p.i.) by positive magnetic cell sorting (Miltenyi Biotec) as described previously. Infectivity titres borne by purified DCs were similar to our previous results (Aucouturier et al., 2001
) (Table 1
). One group of C57BL/6 mice was inoculated with 106 live infected DCs (corresponding to 104.63 ID50 by intracerebral route) in the rear footpads, and another group was inoculated similarly with 106 DCs from the same preparation that had been killed previously by three cycles of freezingthawing. At weeks 1 and 3 p.i., one mouse of each group was sacrificed and PrPSc accumulation was investigated by immunohistochemistry on lymphoid tissues (popliteal, inguinal and mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen).
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Homozygous and heterozygous plt mice were inoculated subcutaneously in the rear footpads with 2x40 µl of 0.2 % (103.83 and 104.11 ID50 for 139A and ME7, respectively) or 0.01 % (102.53 and 102.81 ID50) 139A- or ME7-titrated brain homogenates (Table 1
). In order to evaluate the early stages of scrapie propagation, two mice of each group were sacrificed at weeks 2 and 6 p.i., and lymphoid tissues (popliteal, inguinal and mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen) were examined for PrPSc accumulation. The remaining mice were kept for clinical studies.
For oral inoculations, heterozygous and homozygous plt mice were starved for 24 h and then fed with 200 µl of a 139A- or ME7-infected brain homogenate at 10 % (105.93 and 106.2 ID50, respectively) in Intralipid as described by Maignien et al. (1999)
. One mouse of each group was sacrificed at days 60 and 120 p.i., and spleen, Peyer's patches, mesenteric lymph nodes and brain were collected. Clinical follow-up was performed with the remaining mice.
Finally, homozygous and heterozygous plt mice were inoculated intracerebrally with 20 µl of 0.01 % (101.93 ID50) or 1 % (103.93 ID50) titrated 139A-scrapie brain homogenate.
PrPSc immunohistochemistry.
Immunodetection of PrPSc was performed on 5 µm tissue sections from 4 % paraformaldehyde fixed organs. Rehydrated sections were treated for 5 min with 98 % formic acid, autoclaved for 10 min at 121 °C in 10 mM citrate buffer, pH 6.1, and digested with 10 µg proteinase K (Sigma-Aldrich) ml1 for 15 min at 37 °C. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked with 0.3 % H2O2. Sections were saturated with 20 % goat serum, then incubated for 60 min with anti-PrP monoclonal antibody (clone SAF83, kindly provided by Jacques Grassi, CEA Saclay, France) and 30 min with the peroxidase-conjugated EnVision reagent (K4000; Dako). Each step was followed by washes with 1 % skimmed milk and 0.05 % Tween 20 in PBS. Sections were counterstained with Mayer's haematoxylin. Negative controls were performed using tissue sections from non-infected mice and PrPSc-positive tissue sections without primary antibody.
| RESULTS |
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Scrapie pathogenesis in plt mice after intraperitoneal and subcutaneous inoculation
plt mutants have a natural defect in CCL19- and CCL21-chemokine expression, leading to an altered migration of DCs to T-cell zone areas of lymphoid follicles (Gunn et al., 1999
). Indeed, lower amounts of CD11c+ DCs were found in homozygous plt mice as compared with heterozygous and wild-type littermates (Fig. 2ac
). Although similar amounts of PrPSc were detected in spleen lymphoid follicles from wild-type mice, homozygous and heterozygous plt mice 25 weeks after intraperitoneal inoculations with 100 µl 0.1 % 139A scrapie brain (Fig. 2df
), the incubation time differed significantly between groups (means 180, 179 and 190 days for wild-type, plt/+ and plt/plt, respectively, P=0.003, non parametric KruskalWallis test, see Table 2
). Comparisons of pairs revealed that the clinical onset was similar in heterozygous plt and wild-type mice, and significantly delayed by 11 days in homozygous plt mice. Since wild-type and heterozygous plt mice displayed similar numbers of DCs in lymphoid follicles, and identical scrapie lymphoinvasion and clinical profiles, heterozygous plt mice were used as controls in further experiments.
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Intracerebral scrapie inoculation
Because clinical stage duration was slightly increased in plt mice using certain conditions of scrapie inoculation by the peripheral route, and because chemokines such as CCL21 are known to participate in neuroinflammatory conditions (Columba-Cabezas et al., 2003
; Dijkstra et al., 2004
), we looked for a possible involvement of CCL19 and/or CCL21 in neuropathogenesis by inoculating scrapie directly into the brain. No significant difference was found in the durations of incubation and clinical stages between wild-type, heterozygous and homozygous plt mice inoculated with a low dose of 139A (KruskalWallis non-parametric test). A 100-fold higher dose (1 % scrapie brain homogenate) yielded similar clinical courses in heterozygous and homozygous plt mice (Table 2
).
| DISCUSSION |
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In mice inoculated subcutaneously at a distal site with infected DCs, the incubation was shortened by 18 days when cells were alive, as compared with killed cells. This significant difference suggests that DCs may be actively involved in scrapie development. Whether this effect relates to DC migration, or to a proper ability of these cells to amplify TSE agents, or to any other mechanism, remains to be elucidated. A local inflammatory reaction due to injection of cells could introduce a bias in our results (Heikenwalder et al., 2005
); however, since it is well recognized that necrotic debris (rather than live syngenic cells) are prone to activate pattern recognition receptors (Matzinger, 2002
; Medzhitov & Janeway, 2002
) this would have logically resulted in an effect opposite to what we observed. Thus, as described with viruses such as human immunodeficiency virus (see review in Teleshova et al., 2003
), even though DCs entrap TSE agents, they not only seem insufficient to control infection but could also be a vector of propagation.
PrPSc accumulations in draining lymph nodes looked similar at 3 weeks p.i. in mice inoculated with live and killed scrapie cells. More quantitative analyses of lymphoid tissue infection would be necessary for evaluating the impact of DCs on pre-clinical stages of scrapie, but it seems that prion lymphoinvasion is not strongly dependent on DC functions. In line with this hypothesis, immunohistochemical analyses revealed normal kinetics of lymphoinvasion in plt mice, whatever the dose and scrapie strain. According to the present results, CCL19/CCL21-dependent DC migration to T-cell zones does not appear as a determining factor of prion accumulation in lymphoid organs. In mice with a deficient migration of Langerhans cells, an epidermal subset of DCs, levels of PrPSc deposits in draining lymph nodes were also unaffected as compared with controls (Mohan et al., 2005
). Our own results from transcutaneous and oral scrapie inoculations indicate that CCL19/CCL21-dependent migration of all mucosa and skin DC subsets does not significantly participate in the lymphoinvasion process.
Clinical follow-up of orally inoculated mice revealed no difference between plt and controls. Nonetheless, we observed some differences in the clinical time-course between plt and control mice under certain conditions of peripheral transcutaneous inoculation. In plt mice, the incubation was
10 days longer after intraperitoneal inoculation with a high dose of 139A, and the clinical stage was slightly prolonged with a low dose of 139A or a high dose of ME7 by subcutaneous route. Such differences were not found in other tested conditions. Because these observations apparently related to late rather than early pathogenetic events, they could be caused by chemokine defects in the brain of plt mice. Indeed, several studies pointed to the involvement of CCL21 in neuroinflammatory disorders such as multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (Columba-Cabezas et al., 2003
; Pashenkov et al., 2003
). CCL21 is the only known chemokine that also binds a receptor from another chemokine receptor family, CXCR3. The latter is expressed by microglial cells and allows them to be recruited and activated in response to neuronal death (Rappert et al., 2002
). In this study, direct injection of prions into the brain did not reveal any difference in clinical course between normal and plt mice, apparently ruling out a role of brain CCL21 (or CCL19) in scrapie neuropathology. Studies of scrapie susceptibility in CCR7- and CXCR3-knockout mice could help delineate more precisely the possible involvement of these chemokines.
It is difficult to exclude that some defect of the plt mutation, unrelated to DC migration, could interfere with scrapie pathogenesis. Immunohistological analyses revealed no difference between innervation patterns of lymphoid tissues from plt and normal mice. It remains possible that the T-cell defect in interfollicular regions would play a role; however, these cells are unlikely to be involved in scrapie (Klein et al., 1997
; Raeber et al., 1999
; Aucouturier & Carnaud, 2002
).
Finally, Henning et al. (2001)
showed that the migration defect in plt mice could be restored by the immunosuppressive drug FTY720, suggesting that other mechanisms could compensate for the CCR7-ligand deficiency. Thus, whether prion-infected DCs might undertake unusual migration pathways is a possibility that remains to be explored.
In conclusion, the CCL19/CCL21-mediated DC migration seems not to significantly influence the early scrapie pathogenesis. Still, some facilitating effect is provided by DCs, as shown by inoculation of live infected cells. This effect seems not to be related to prion lymphoinvasion, suggesting that DCs are able to propagate infection directly to sites of neuroinvasion or use other means of propagation (Rosicarelli et al., 2005
). In our opinion, further studies on DCs in TSE pathogenesis should be aimed at understanding their interactions with the nervous system and evaluating the potential benefits of blocking this interaction.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Received 21 December 2006;
accepted 30 March 2007.
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