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Xu Y, Wang Y, Winner H, Yang H, He R, Wang J, Zhong G. Regulation of chlamydial spreading from the small intestine to the large intestine by IL-22-producing CD4 + T cells. Infect Immun 2024; 92:e0042123. [PMID: 38047677 PMCID: PMC10790816 DOI: 10.1128/iai.00421-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Following an oral inoculation, Chlamydia muridarum descends to the mouse large intestine for long-lasting colonization. However, a mutant C. muridarum that lacks the plasmid-encoded protein pGP3 due to an engineered premature stop codon (designated as CMpGP3S) failed to do so even following an intrajejunal inoculation. This was because a CD4+ T cell-dependent immunity prevented the spread of CMpGP3S from the small intestine to the large intestine. In the current study, we found that mice deficient in IL-22 (IL-22-/-) allowed CMpGP3S to spread from the small intestine to the large intestine on day 3 after intrajejunal inoculation, indicating a critical role of IL-22 in regulating the chlamydial spread. The responsible IL-22 is produced by CD4+ T cells since IL-22-/- mice were rescued to block the CMpGP3S spread by donor CD4+ T cells from C57BL/6J mice. Consistently, CD4+ T cells lacking IL-22 failed to block the spread of CMpGP3S in Rag2-/- mice, while IL-22-competent CD4+ T cells did block. Furthermore, mice deficient in cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP) permitted the CMpGP3S spread, but donor CD4+ T cells from CRAMP-/- mice were still sufficient for preventing the CMpGP3S spread in Rag2-/- mice, indicating a critical role of CRAMP in regulating chlamydial spreading, and the responsible CRAMP is not produced by CD4+ T cells. Thus, the IL-22-producing CD4+ T cell-dependent regulation of chlamydial spreading correlated with CRAMP produced by non-CD4+ T cells. These findings provide a platform for further characterizing the subset(s) of CD4+ T cells responsible for regulating bacterial spreading in the intestine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Xu
- Department of Immunology, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Yihui Wang
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Halah Winner
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Huijie Yang
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Rongze He
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Jie Wang
- Department of Immunology, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Guangming Zhong
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
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