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Pulmonary Immune Responses to Propionibacterium acnes in C57BL/6 and BALB/c Mice

Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill; and National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Stephen Tilley, Pulmonary Immunobiology Lab, 8033 Burnett-Womack Bldg. CB# 7219, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7219. E-mail: stephen_tilley{at}med.unc.edu

Propionibacterium acnes (PA) is a gram-positive anaerobic bacterium implicated as a putative etiologic agent of sarcoidosis. To characterize the pulmonary immune response to PA, C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally sensitized and intratracheally challenged with heat-killed bacteria. C57BL/6 mice challenged with PA developed a cellular immune response characterized by elevations in Th1 cytokines/chemokines, increased numbers of lymphocytes and macrophages in lung lavage fluid, and peribronchovascular granulomatous inflammation composed of T- and B-lymphocytes and epithelioid histiocytes. T-lymphocytes in the lung lavage fluid showed a marked CD4+ cell predominance. In contrast, C57BL/6 mice challenged with Staphylococcus epidermidis (SE), another gram-positive commensal of human skin, and BALB/c mice challenged with PA, showed only a modest induction of Th1 cytokines, less pulmonary inflammation, and no granulomatous changes in the lung. Enhancement of Toll-like receptor expression was seen in PA-exposed C57BL/6 mice within 24 h after exposure, suggesting that induction of innate immunity by PA contributes to the robust, polarized Th1 immune response elicited by this bacterium. These findings suggest that PA-induced pulmonary inflammation may be a useful model for testing the contributions of both bacterial and host factors in the development, maintenance, and resolution of granulomatous inflammation in the lung.

Key Words: inflammation • granuloma • lung • mouse • Propionibacterium acnes