Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 cooperate in the control of the emerging pathogen Brucella microti

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize pathogen-derived molecules and play a critical role during the host innate and adaptive immune response. Brucella spp. are intracellular gram-negative bacteria including several virulent species, which cause a chronic zoonotic infection in a wide range of mammalian hosts known as brucellosis. A new Brucella species, Brucella microti, was recently isolated from wild rodents and found to be highly pathogenic in mice. Using this species-specific model, it was previously found that CD8+ T cells are required to control this infection. In order to find out the role of TLR-mediated responses in the control of this pathogen, the course of infection of B. microti was analyzed over 3 weeks in wild-type (WT) and TLR knock out (KO) mice including TLR2-/-, TLR4-/-, TLR9-/-, TLR2×4-/- and TLR2×4×9-/-. WT and single TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 KO mice similarly control infection in liver and spleen. In contrast, bacterial clearance was delayed in TLR2×4-/- and TLR2×4×9-/- mice at 7 and 14 days post-infection. This defect correlated with impaired maturation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in B. microti-infected dendritic cells from TLR2×4-/- and TLR2×4×9-/- mice. Finally, it was found that Tc cells from TLR2×4-/- and TLR2×4×9-/- mice showed reduced ability to inhibit growth of B. microti in macrophages, suggesting the involvement of TLR2 and 4 in the generation of specific Tc cells. Our findings indicate that TLR2 and TLR4 are required to control B. microti infection in mice and that this effect could be related to its participation in the maturation of dendritic cells and the generation of specific CD8+ Tc cells

Popular cultural representations of postfeminist religiosity in the International Christian Fellowship

Femininity and female gender roles in conservative religious environments are highly disputed topics both within communities of faith and in sociological discourse. In light of social transformations of gender perceptions in the past decades, conservative Christians have had to reevaluate traditional understandings of womanhood in societies that have become steeped in popular culture and thoroughly mediatized. Taking this development as a point of departure, this article examines how femininity is represented in the International Christian Fellowship, particularly on its "Ladies Lounge" webpage. Advertising an annual event geared exclusively towards women, the website's landing page contains images and text that we examine by means of visual and textual sequence analysis. Our research results reveal that women are depicted as sensually attractive and self-confidently professional while at the same time being relegated to an exclusively female sphere within (but not beyond) which they wield authority and influence. As such, femininity is represented as self-empowering, but only within a specific, postfeminist framework. This ambivalent depiction of women's agency challenges conservative Evangelical values at the same time as it affirms them. In this sense, the study contributes the growing body of literature on gender and Evangelicalism.Weiblichkeit und weibliche Genderrollen in konservativen religiösen Kontexten sind häufig debattierte Themen sowohl innerhalb religiöser Gemeinden als auch im soziologischen Diskurs. In Anbetracht sozialer Transformationen von Genderwahrnehmungen in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten sehen sich konservative Christ*innen gezwungen, traditionelle Verständnisse von Weiblichkeit in Gesellschaften zu reevaluieren, die durchweg mediatisiert und von Populärkultur geprägt sind. Der Beitrag nimmt diesen Prozess als Ausgangspunkt, um zu untersuchen, wie Weiblichkeit im International Christian Fellowship repräsentiert wird, speziell auf der Startseite der "Ladies Lounge" Webseite. Diese bewirbt einen jährlichen Event, der sich ausschließlich an Frauen richtet; die Startseite beinhaltet Bilder und Text, die wir mit Hilfe von sequenzanalytischen Methoden untersuchen. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Frauen als sinnlich-attraktiv und selbstbewusst-professionell dargestellt und gleichzeitig einer exklusiv weiblichen Sphäre zugeordnet werden, innerhalb derer sie Autorität und Einfluss besitzen (aber nicht darüber hinaus). Somit wird Weiblichkeit als selbstermächtigend dargestellt, allerdings nur innerhalb eines spezifischen, postfeministischen Rahmens. Diese ambivalente Repräsentation weiblicher $\it agency$ stellt konservativ-evangelikale Werte einerseits auf den Kopf und bestätigt sie andererseits paradoxerweise. In diesem Sinne stellt der Artikel einen Beitrag zur wachsenden Literatur zu Gender und Evangelikalismus dar

Infektionserzeugte Ueberempfindlichkeit gegenueber bakteriellem Endotoxin: Mechanismen und Auswirkungen Schlussbericht

Live and killed gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria induce in mice an LPS-hypersensitivity which leads to an increased susceptibility of the animals to lethal activity of LPS and to an enhanced cytokine production after LPS treatment. IFN-#gamma# is an important mediator of this bacteria-induced hypersensitivity. Type I interferons (IFN-#alpha#,#beta#) play a co-factor role in the induction of IFN-#gamma# by gram-negative bacteria. LPS is the only bacterial agent capable of inducing IFN-#beta# consequently type I IFN is not inducible by any bacteria in LPS-resistant mice. We investigated further the role of LBP in the toxic activity of LPS in normal and hypersensitive mice. While normal responses to LPS are obtained in the presence or absence of LBP, the enhanced activity of LPS (cytokine hyperresponses) is expressed only in the presence of this molecule. Studies in patients with severe infections, revealed that the blood cells of such patients are hyperresponsive to LPS. In contrast, the same blood clutures expressed cytokine hyperresponses when stimulated with whole killed bacteria. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: DtF QN1(73,39) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman