O-Antigen Delays Lipopolysaccharide Recognition and Impairs Antibacterial Host Defense in Murine Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Although Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 signals from the cell surface of myeloid cells, it is restricted to an intracellular compartment and requires ligand internalization in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). Yet, the functional consequence of cell-type specific receptor localization and uptake-dependent lipopolysaccharide (LPS) recognition is unknown. Here, we demonstrate a strikingly delayed activation of IECs but not macrophages by wildtype Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica sv. (S.) Typhimurium as compared to isogenic O-antigen deficient mutants. Delayed epithelial activation is associated with impaired LPS internalization and retarded TLR4-mediated immune recognition. The O-antigen-mediated evasion from early epithelial innate immune activation significantly enhances intraepithelial bacterial survival in vitro and in vivo following oral challenge. These data identify O-antigen expression as an innate immune evasion mechanism during apical intestinal epithelial invasion and illustrate the importance of early innate immune recognition for efficient host defense against invading Salmonella

Comparative studies of Toll-like receptor signalling using zebrafish

Zebrafish model systems for infectious disease are increasingly used for the functional analysis of molecular pattern recognition processes. These studies benefit from the high conservation level of all innate immune factors in vertebrates. Zebrafish studies are strategically well positioned for this because of the ease of comparisons with studies in other fish species of which the immune system also has been intensively studied, but that are currently still less amendable to detailed genetic or microscopic studies. In this paper we focus on Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling factors, which currently are the best characterized in mammalian systems. We review the knowledge on TLR signalling in the context of recent advances in zebrafish studies and discuss possibilities for future approaches that can complement studies in cell cultures and rodent models. A focus in these comparisons is the role of negative control mechanisms in immune responses that appear very important in a whole organism to keep adverse systemic responses in check. We also pay much attention to comparisons with studies in common carp that is highly related to zebrafish and that because of its large body mass can complement immune studies in zebrafish