Salmonella Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Salmonella, including details on salmonella typhimurium, food poisoning, infection, treatment.

Survival of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium within late endosomal-lysosomal compartments of B lymphocytes is associated with the inability to use the vacuolar alternative major histocompatibility complex class I antigen-processing pathway.

Rosales-Reyes R, Alpuche-Aranda C, Ramírez-Aguilar Mde L, Castro-Eguiluz AD, Ortiz-Navarrete V

Departamento de Biomedicina Molecular, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), Av. IPN No. 2508, Colonia San Pedro Zacatenco, Delegación Gustavo A. Madero, México, DF CP 07360, Mexico.

Gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-activated macrophages use an alternative processing mechanism to present Salmonella antigens to CD8(+) T lymphocytes. This pathway involves processing of antigen in a vacuolar compartment followed by secretion and loading of antigenic peptides to major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecules on macrophage cell surface and bystander cells. In this study, we have shown that B lymphocytes are not able to process Salmonella antigens using this alternative pathway. This is due to differences in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium-containing vacuoles (SCV) when comparing late endosomal-lysosomal processing compartments in B lymphocytes to those in macrophages. The IFN-gamma-activated IC21 macrophage cell line and A-20 B-cell line were infected with live or dead Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The SCV in B cells were in a late endosomal-lysosomal compartment, whereas SCV in macrophages were remodeled to a non-characteristic late endosomal-lysosomal compartment over time. Despite the difference in SCV within macrophages and B lymphocytes, S. enterica serovar Typhimurium survives more efficiently within the IFN-gamma-activated B cells than in activated macrophage cell lines. Similar results were found during in vivo acute infection. We determined that a lack of remodeling of late endosomal-lysosomal compartments by live Salmonella infection in B lymphocytes is associated with the inability to use the alternative MHC-I antigen-processing pathway, providing a survival advantage to the bacterium. Our data also suggest that the B lymphocyte late endosome-lysosome environment allows the expression of Salmonella virulence mechanisms favoring B lymphocytes in addition to macrophages and dendritic cells as a reservoir during in vivo infection.

Published 23 June 2005 in Infect Immun, 73(7): 3937-44.
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