Pulmonary arterial remodeling induced by a Th2 immune response

Pulmonary arterial remodeling characterized by increased vascular smooth muscle density is a common lesion seen in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a deadly condition. Clinical correlation studies have suggested an immune pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial remodeling, but experimental proof has been lacking. We show that immunization and prolonged intermittent challenge via the airways with either of two different soluble antigens induced severe muscularization in small- to medium-sized pulmonary arteries. Depletion of CD4+ T cells, antigen-specific T helper type 2 (Th2) response, or the pathogenic Th2 cytokine interleukin 13 significantly ameliorated pulmonary arterial muscularization. The severity of pulmonary arterial muscularization was associated with increased numbers of epithelial cells and macrophages that expressed a smooth muscle cell mitogen, resistin-like molecule α, but surprisingly, there was no correlation with pulmonary hypertension. Our data are the first to provide experimental proof that the adaptive immune response to a soluble antigen is sufficient to cause severe pulmonary arterial muscularization, and support the clinical observations in pediatric patients and in companion animals that muscularization represents one of several injurious events to the pulmonary artery that may collectively contribute to PAH

Interleukin-19: a constituent of the regulome that controls antigen presenting cells in the lungs and airway responses to microbial products.

Interleukin (IL)-19 has been reported to enhance chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma but the in vivo mechanism is incompletely understood. Because IL-19 is produced by and regulates cells of the monocyte lineage, our studies focused on in vivo responses of CD11c positive (CD11c+) alveolar macrophages and lung dendritic cells.IL-19-deficient (IL-19-/-) mice were studied at baseline (naïve) and following intranasal challenge with microbial products, or recombinant cytokines. Naïve IL-19-/- mixed background mice had a decreased percentage of CD11c+ cells in the bronchoalveolar-lavage (BAL) due to the deficiency in IL-19 and a trait inherited from the 129-mouse strain. BAL CD11c+ cells from fully backcrossed IL-19-/- BALB/c or C57BL/6 mice expressed significantly less Major Histocompatibility Complex class II (MHCII) in response to intranasal administration of lipopolysaccharide, Aspergillus antigen, or IL-13, a pro-allergic cytokine. Neurogenic-locus-notch-homolog-protein-2 (Notch2) expression by lung monocytes, the precursors of BAL CD11c+ cells, was dysregulated: extracellular Notch2 was significantly decreased, transmembrane/intracellular Notch2 was significantly increased in IL-19-/- mice relative to wild type. Instillation of recombinant IL-19 increased extracellular Notch2 expression and dendritic cells cultured from bone marrow cells in the presence of IL-19 showed upregulated extracellular Notch2. The CD205 positive subset among the CD11c+ cells was 3-5-fold decreased in the airways and lungs of naïve IL-19-/- mice relative to wild type. Airway inflammation and histological changes in the lungs were ameliorated in IL-19-/- mice challenged with Aspergillus antigen that induces T lymphocyte-dependent allergic inflammation but not in IL-19-/- mice challenged with lipopolysaccharide or IL-13.Because MHCII is the molecular platform that displays peptides to T lymphocytes and Notch2 determines cell fate decisions, our studies suggest that endogenous IL-19 is a constituent of the regulome that controls both processes in vivo

Transmission of chimeric HIV by mating in conventional mice: prevention by pre-exposure antiretroviral therapy and reduced susceptibility during estrus

SUMMARY Heterosexual transmission accounts for the majority of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases worldwide. The current approach to investigate HIV heterosexual transmission in animals involves application of virus stock to the vaginal surface, a method that does not reproduce the physiological conditions of vaginal intercourse that influence the rate of transmission. We have previously described efficient infection of conventional mice using EcoHIV/NL4-3 and EcoHIV/NDK, chimeric HIV molecular clones constructed to express all HIV structural and regulatory genes except envelope, which is replaced by a rodent-tropic envelope gene. Here we investigated whether EcoHIV/NDK-infected male mice transmit virus to females during coitus, and the sensitivity of this transmission to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and the estrus state. Our general approach was to allow mating between EcoHIV/NDK-infected male mice and uninfected females for 1–7 nights. At 1–6 weeks after mating, mice were euthanized and virus burdens were measured by quantitative PCR (qPCR) amplification of HIV RNA or DNA in peritoneal macrophages, inguinal lymph node cells, spleen cells or vas deferens, or by ELISA for antibodies to HIV Gag. We found that 70–100% of female mice mated to EcoHIV/NDK-infected males acquired infection. Pericoital treatment of females with either 2′,3′-dideoxcytidine (ddC) or tenofovir largely prevented their EcoHIV/NDK infection by mating (P<0.05 and P<0.003, respectively). In males, T cells were dispensable for virus transmission. The rate of EcoHIV/NDK sexual transmission to females in estrus declined sharply (P=0.003) but their infection by injection was unaffected, indicating that the local environment in the female reproductive tract influences susceptibility to HIV. We conclude that this system of EcoHIV/NDK transmission during mouse mating reproduces key features of heterosexual transmission of HIV in humans and can be used to investigate its biology and control