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Journal of Virology, March 2008, p. 2772-2783, Vol. 82, No. 6
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01210-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Microbiology, Hyogo College of Medicine, 663-8501, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Received 2 June 2007/ Accepted 19 November 2007
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The two series of phagocytes contribute to differing degrees of protection against individual species of pathogens during bacterial infection. In terms of the relative contributions to early protection against bacterial infection, the roles of phagocytes were investigated using the susceptibilities of PMN to gamma irradiation and carrageenan. Gamma irradiation-sensitive and carrageenan-resistant PMN contributed primarily to early protection against extracellular bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (44), Escherichia coli (47), and Streptococcus pneumoniae (22), while protection against intracellular bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes was highly dependent on tissue-fixed gamma-irradiation-resistant and carrageenan-sensitive macrophages (25, 44). This is consistent with the observation that early protection against intracellular bacteria is also dependent on PMN, based on an analysis using recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (5, 19, 40). Recently, the protective role of PMN against bacterial infection has been further analyzed using a specific monoclonal antibody (MAb) to PMN (10, 12, 26, 45). In contrast, since the protective role of PMN in virus infection was first reported in bovine herpesvirus infection (36), most subsequent work consisted of in vitro studies that investigated mainly human herpesvirus (24, 36, 37). A very few reports have analyzed the role of PMN in the innate host defense against generalized virus infections based on in vivo studies with selective depletion of PMN, such as those using the specific anti-PMN MAb (48, 49).
The aim of this study is to elucidate the role of PMN in host defense against virus infection by using mice infected with influenza A virus as a model. The investigations were initiated on the basis of the observations that PMN are nonpermissive to virus infection and capable of preventing the multiplication of several types of virus (16, 35, 46). In contrast, both macrophages and lymphocytes, which are responsible for innate and acquired immunity, respectively, are permissive to virus infections and act as target cells (15, 16, 33, 34). Previous studies using gamma-irradiated and carrageenan-treated mice strongly suggest that PMN are the primary cells involved in protection in the early phase of pulmonary infection with either a low (1.5 x 103 PFU) or a high (1.5 x 104 PFU) inoculum of influenza virus and that alveolar macrophages could also contribute to this early protection against virus infection with a high inoculum (16). An earlier study indicated that PMN can prevent influenza virus from propagating in the lungs of tumor-bearing mice with neutrophilic leukocytosis and that they play a significant role in host defense in the early to the stationary (plateau) phase against primary pulmonary infection with the virus (14). More recently, in a study using a recombinant human H1N1 virus with genes from the 1918 influenza A virus bearing pathogenicity for mice, Tumpey et al. (48) reported that both types of phagocytes contributed to early protection against primary infection with a sublethal dose. However, the roles of the two types of phagocytes in the host defense against virulent strains of influenza A virus have not been entirely clarified. Indeed, the influenza A virus used in our earlier studies was a low-virulence strain of the virus. Furthermore, little is known about the functional role of PMN in the mechanisms of virus elimination during the recovery stage of primary infection and in early protection against reinfection with the virus after generation of the specific acquired immunity.
This study was undertaken to clarify the cooperative contributions of PMN and the antibody response to the elimination of a virulent strain of influenza A virus from mice infected with either a low or a high inoculum by means of passive transfer of an antiserum against influenza virus to control and PMN-depleted mice. The results revealed that PMN preferentially contributed, together with the specific antibody response, to virus elimination in the early- to the late-phase protection against reinfection as well as to late-phase recovery from the primary infection.
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Antisera and antibodies. Mice were intraperitoneally (i.p.) inoculated with 1.0 x 108 PFU of the virus and were boosted intravenously twice at 1-week intervals. One week later, mice were lightly anesthetized with diethyl ether, blood was collected from the axillary artery and vein, and sera were separated from the pooled blood by centrifugation. The titer of neutralizing antibody (50% neutralizing dose; ND50) in the serum (referred to below as anti-influenza virus antiserum, or anti-PR8 antiserum) was 1:2,048 to 1:4,096 in the MDCK cell plaque assay (14, 16). Normal mouse serum (NMS) was collected and prepared in the same way as the sera from PR8-immunized mice and was used as a control serum. The rat IgG2b MAb RB6 was prepared from the culture supernatant and ascites of pristane-primed BALB/c nude mice transplanted with the hybridoma by affinity chromatography with protein G-agarose (Fast Flow column; Millipore Co., Billerica, MA) and was quantified using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay quantitation kit for rat IgG2b antibody (Bethyl Laboratories, Inc., Montgomery, TX). As a control, the same amount of rat IgG (Sigma) was used in the experiment for PMN depletion in vivo.
Virus infection and titration. The mice were anesthetized with diethyl ether and inoculated intranasally with 50 µl of a virus suspension diluted in cold MEM. After the bleeding of the axillary artery and vein, a lung homogenate (10%) prepared in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was dispersed by sonication and centrifuged, and then the supernatant was stored at –70°C until titration. Tenfold dilutions of the supernatant were prepared in PBS supplemented with 0.25% bovine serum albumin (Sigma, St. Louis, MO). The infectivity of the pulmonary virus in the supernatant was titrated by an MDCK cell plaque assay (14, 16). The results were expressed as the mean PFU ± standard deviation (SD) per lung for 6 to 8 mice/group.
Preparation of PMN and alveolar macrophages. Heparinized peripheral blood was collected from the axillary artery and vein or from the retro-orbital venous plexus of lightly anesthetized mice. Peritoneal exudate cells were prepared from the cavities of mice that had received 1.5 ml of glycogen solution (0.1% in saline) 3 to 4 h previously. The peripheral blood and peritoneal exudate PMN were partially purified by centrifugation after being layered onto Mono-Poly resolving medium ((Flow Laboratories Inc., McLean, VA), and the neutrophil-enriched fraction was collected. Alveolar macrophages were prepared by washing the lungs of mice. After the chest cavity was opened, the trachea was cannulated with a needle and anchored by suturing. The lung was washed with PBS containing 0.02% EDTA (10 ml), and the cells were collected by centrifugation. The PMN and alveolar macrophages were resuspended in supplemented RPMI 1640 and used in subsequent experiments (14, 16).
Preparation of cells infiltrating the lungs of mice infected with influenza virus. Single-cell suspensions of the lungs were prepared as follows. Freshly resected lungs were minced with scissors to a fine slurry and enzymatically digested by incubation at 37°C for 1 h in supplemented RPMI 1640 medium (15 ml/lung) containing type A collagenase (1 mg/ml; Wako Pure Chemicals Co., Osaka, Japan) and DNase I (30 U/ml; Wako Pure Chemicals). The cell suspensions were drawn up and down 20 times in 10-ml syringes to disperse the cells mechanically, and the suspensions were pelleted, resuspended, and passed through nylon mesh filters. The isolated cells were counted using a hemocytometer, and cell suspensions were first applied to glass slides and then dried and fixed with methanol and stained with Giemsa. The differential cell counts were determined under a microscope, and the absolute number of a leukocyte subtype was determined by multiplication of the percentage of that cell type by the total number of lung leukocytes in the sample.
Depletion of PMN, passive transfer of anti-PR8, and treatment with fMLP. MAb RB6 treatment was carried out by daily i.p. injections of 400 µg/0.4 ml of the antibody from day –2 to day 8 after virus infection (6 to 8 mice/group). This treatment resulted in a decrease in the PMN counts in the peripheral blood of mice before virus infection to less than 0.5% of the total cell counts. As a control, the same amount of rat IgG (Sigma) was used in the experiment for PMN depletion in vivo. For passive transfer, 0.4 to 0.6 ml of the anti-PR8 antiserum was injected i.p. before or after infection. The same amount of NMS was used as a control. Formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) (1 x 10–6 M; 50 µl/mouse) (Wako Pure Chemicals), a tripeptide produced by several kinds of bacteria and a potent chemoattractant and functional activator for PMN and macrophages (9, 29, 39), was intranasally administered to the mice on days 1 and 3 after infection in order to enhance PMN infiltration into the lungs of mice in early infection.
Measurement of the inhibitory effect of neutrophils on virus propagation in vitro. One day after the seeding of MDCK cells (1 x 105/well) into multiwell culture plates (Nunclon 3033; Nunc), cells were infected with PR8 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.1, 1.0, or 10 for 1 h at room temperature, washed with MEM, and incubated in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10 mM HEPES and 10% fetal calf serum (supplemented RPMI 1640) at 37°C under a 5% CO2 atmosphere for 6 h. PMN, alveolar macrophages, or spleen cells of normal mice suspended in supplemented RPMI 1640 (1 x 105 to 2 x 106 cells/well) were added to the infected MDCK cell cultures. To analyze the synergistic inhibition of virus propagation by PMN and antibody, anti-PR8 antiserum inactivated at 56°C for 30 min was diluted in RPMI 1640 and added to the culture with phagocytes or spleen cells, and fMLP (1 x 10–7 M) was added from the initiation of the culture (3 to 5 cultures/group). The cells were cultured at 37°C under a 5% CO2 atmosphere for 24 or 48 h, harvested with the culture supernatant after freezing and thawing, and disrupted by sonication (200 W, 2 A, for 5 min; Insonator model 200M; Kubota K.K., Japan). After centrifugation, the virus titer in a 10-fold dilution of the supernatant was titrated by an MDCK cell plaque assay (16, 46). Results were expressed as the mean PFU per culture ± SD for triplicate to quintuplicate cultures from at least three independent experiments.
Assessments of the cytotoxicity and ADCC of PMN. MDCK cells (1 x 104/well) seeded into flat-bottom 96-well microplates (Nunclon; Nunc) 18 h previously were incubated with 30 µl of Na251CrO4 (610 mCi/mM) at 37°C for 1 h, washed four times with MEM, and subsequently cultured for 3 h. Cells were infected with PR8 at an MOI of 10 at 25°C for 1 h, washed twice with MEM, and cultured in supplemented RPMI 1640 for 6 h. Peritoneal or peripheral blood PMN were added to the cultures in the presence or absence of heat-inactivated anti-PR8 antiserum (1:200) or NMS and fMLP (1 x 10–7 M), respectively, and were subsequently incubated for 6 to 18 h (triplicate cultures/group). The radioactivity in the culture supernatant was determined using a gamma counter, and the cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) of PMN were expressed as percent 51Cr release. Cytotoxic activity was calculated as (release by PMN – spontaneous release) x 100/(total count – spontaneous release). ADCC activity was calculated as (release by PMN plus sera – spontaneous release) x 100/(total count – spontaneous release). The spontaneous release from the target cells infected with the virus alone usually ranged from 3 to 5% of the total counts. The total counts were determined by target cell lysis after freezing and thawing of the cultured cells with the supernatant. Results were expressed as means ± SDs for triplicate cultures from at least three independent experiments.
Measurement of chemiluminescent response. The chemiluminescent response of neutrophils to PR8 was measured by a slight modification of a method described previously (14). A PMN suspension (1.0 x 106 cells/0.1 ml) was mixed with an equal volume of luminol solution (1.0 x 10–6 M; Laboscience, Tokyo, Japan) in a counting tube, and the tube was placed in a lumiphotometer (Packard, Downers Grove, IL). Intact PR8 (1.0 x 105 to 1.0 x 107 PFU) or PR8 pretreated with heat-inactivated NMS or anti-PR8 antiserum (1:100) at 4°C for 15 min was added to the tube, and then the chemiluminescent emission was measured immediately at 37°C (triplicate cultures/group). fMLP (3 x 10–7 M) and zymosan (ZAP; Packard) were also used as standard stimulants. Results were expressed as means in triplicate from at least three independent experiments.
Statistical analysis. Data from quantitative analyses were expressed as means ± SDs (6 to 8 mice/group for in vivo experiments or 3 to 5 cultures/group for in vitro cultures). Statistical analyses were performed using Student's t test, and P values of <0.05 were considered to be significant.
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FIG. 1. Survival rates of PMN-depleted and control mice infected with a small (1.0 x 102 PFU) (A) or a large (1.5 x 103 PFU) (B) inoculum of influenza A virus strain PR8 and receiving passive transfer of anti-PR8 antiserum or NMS (or neither) 3 days (3d) after infection. BALB/c mice (8 to 10/group) were daily injected i.p. with MAb RB6 or control rat IgG from day –2 to day 8 after virus infection. Mice were intranasally (i.n.) infected with either inoculum of PR8 on day zero.
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FIG. 2. Pulmonary virus titers of mice infected with a small inoculum of influenza A virus strain PR8 (1.0 x 102 PFU) and effects of passive transfer of anti-PR8 or NMS into mice on the virus titers. MAb RB6-treated mice (triangles) and rat IgG-treated control mice (circles) were intranasally (i.n.) infected with PR8 virus and received passive transfer of anti-PR8 (open symbols) or NMS (solid symbols) at 1 h before (A), and on day 1 (B) and 3 (C) after, PR8 infection. Results are expressed as means ± SDs for 6 to 8 mice per group. Asterisks indicate that the titers in the lungs of PMN-depleted and/or anti-PR8-transferred mice are significantly different (P < 0.05) from the titers in the lungs of control mice.
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FIG. 3. Pulmonary virus titers of mice infected with a large inoculum of influenza A virus strain PR8 (1.5 x 103 PFU) and effects of passive transfer of anti-PR8 or NMS into mice on the virus titers. MAb RB6-treated mice (triangles) and rat IgG-treated control mice (circles) were intranasally (i.n.) infected with PR8 virus and received passive transfer of anti-PR8 (open symbols) or NMS (solid symbols) at 1 h before (A), and on day 1 (B) and 3 (C) after, PR8 infection. Results are expressed as means ± SDs for 4 to 8 mice per group. Asterisks indicate that the titers in the lungs of PMN-depleted and/or anti-PR8-transferred mice are significantly different (P < 0.05) from the titers in the lungs of control mice.
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FIG. 4. ND50s in the sera of mice infected with 1.0 x 102 PFU of influenza A virus strain PR8 before or after passive transfer of anti-PR8. Mice treated with MAb RB6 (triangles) and control mice treated with rat IgG (circles) received NMS (solid symbols) or anti-PR8 antiserum (open symbols) at 1 h before (A), and on day 1 (B) and 3 (C) after, virus infection. Results are expressed as ND50s of pooled sera from 6 to 8 mice per group.
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FIG. 5. Counts of total cells and PMN infiltrating and accumulating in the lungs of rat IgG-treated control mice (A) and MAb RB6-treated mice (B) with or without passive transfer of anti-PR8 antiserum or NMS on day 1 after virus infection (1.0 x 103 PFU). Open symbols, total-cell counts; solid symbols, PMN counts; triangles, anti-PR8; circles, NMS. Results are means from three experiments for 3 mice per group.
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FIG. 6. Effects of intranasal (i.n.) treatment with fMLP on pulmonary virus titers (A), survival rates of mice (B) (8 to 10 mice per group), and counts of viable cells infiltrating the lungs of mice (C) after infection with influenza A virus strain PR8 (1.0 x 102 PFU) with or without passive transfer of anti-PR8 antiserum. (A and B) Solid and shaded symbols, mice without anti-PR8 passive transfer; open symbols, mice receiving anti-PR8 transfer on day 1 after virus infection. Circles, virus-infected normal mice; triangles, normal mice treated with fMLP on day 1; squares, normal mice treated with fMLP on days 1 and 3. Results in panel A are means ± SDs for 5 to 6 mice per group. (C) Counts of mononuclear cells (shaded bars) and PMN (solid bars) infiltrating the lungs of PR8-infected mice with or without fMLP treatment (on day 1 only or on days 1 and 3) and/or passive transfer of anti-PR8 on day 1 after infection. Results are means from three experiments with 3 mice per group.
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TABLE 1. Synergistic prevention of influenza virus propagation by PMN and anti-influenza virus antiserum in vitro
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FIG. 7. Cytotoxic and ADCC activities of PMN in vitro. A PMN suspension and either anti-PR8 antiserum (1:200) or NMS (also at a 1:200 dilution) were concomitantly added to influenza virus-infected MDCK cell cultures at 6 h after infection. The release of 51Cr from target MDCK cells was measured at 12 h after the addition of PMN and expressed as a percentage of total cell counts. Dark shaded bars, ADCC activity in the presence of antiserum; light shaded bars, cytotoxic activity in the presence of NMS; open bars, cytotoxic activity in the absence of serum. Results are means ± SDs for triplicate or quadruplicate cultures.
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FIG. 8. Chemiluminescent response of PMN to influenza A virus without (A) or with (B) treatment with anti-PR8 antiserum or NMS. Peritoneal PMN (1.0 x 106 cells) were mixed with either zymosan, fMLP, influenza virus alone, or influenza virus pretreated with anti-PR8 antiserum or NMS (1:100) at 4°C for 15 min in the presence of luminol. Light emission was measured at 37°C.
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The passive transfer of the antiserum into PMN-depleted mice before and after virus infection with either inoculum could neither suppress rapid virus propagation and high virus titers nor accelerate virus elimination, although the transfer into control mice markedly enhanced early protection and late recovery over the whole period of the infection, even with a high inoculum of the virus (Fig. 2 and 3). The neutralizing antibody titer in the serum (ND50) after antiserum transfer was sufficiently elevated to neutralize even a high level of pulmonary virus titers (Fig. 2, 3, and 4), while for MAB RB6-treated or control mice receiving NMS, low and similar ND50s (1:32 or 1:64) in the sera, which could not decrease high virus titers in MAb RB6-treated mice and control mice transferred with NMS were detectable on day 7 after infection with either inoculum (Fig. 4) (data for the high inoculum not shown). Therefore, the delay in virus elimination in the late phase for MAb RB6-treated mice was not attributable to a failure of the antibody response in PMN-depleted mice due to MAb RB6 treatment (Fig. 2, 3, and 4). Furthermore, antiserum transfer into control mice but not into PMN-depleted mice swiftly and preferentially enhanced PMN infiltration of the lung from the early to the late phase after virus infection (Fig. 5A and B). Quite recently, Buchweitz et al. (7) reported that the kinetics of PMN infiltration into the lungs of C57BL/6 mice infected with the A/PR/8 strain resembled that in the present study. These results clearly indicate that the antibody transfer and pulmonary PMN accumulation are well correlated with the decreases in pulmonary virus titers (Fig. 2B and C and 3B and C) and in the mortality rate of mice (Fig. 1). Therefore, the present study has clarified the most notable evidence that PMN primarily cooperate with the antibody response in the protection against and recovery from both primary infection and reinfection with the virulent virus.
The propagation of virulent influenza virus in vitro was inhibited by the addition of PMN to virus-infected MDCK cell cultures, and the inhibition was synergistically facilitated in the presence of heat-inactivated antiserum but not of NMS in the cultures (Table 1), while the addition of alveolar macrophages or spleen cells from normal mice could neither inhibit virus propagation nor exhibit such potent inhibition with the antiserum (Table 1). This indicated that the potent preventive effect on virus propagation was attributable neither to nonspecific disturbances by other leukocytes without PMN nor to nonspecific inhibitors in the serum (2, 35, 42). The weak cytotoxic and more potent ADCC activities of PMN in the presence of antiserum were also observed in MDCK cell cultures infected with influenza virus (Fig. 7), suggesting that PMN could be a cytotoxic effector cell population responsible for the virus-infected target cells and could efficiently inhibit the spread of virus in the infective site in the presence of antibody. This result seemed to be supported by evidence that PMN could adhere to influenza virus-infected cells (32). Furthermore, a chemiluminescent response of PMN was elicited with a small amount of influenza virus (MOI, <1.0), but was abolished by large numbers of infective virus (MOI, >10). However, a potent and prolonged chemiluminescent response to the large amount of virus was induced by the pretreatment of the virus with the antiserum (Fig. 8A and B). My previous study also indicated that PMN were capable of phagocytosing influenza virus based on the chemiluminescent response of PMN to the virus and that PMN were nonpermissive to virus replication, although alveolar and peritoneal macrophages are permissive to the virus but not as susceptible as MDCK cells (46). Cassidy et al. (8) also indicated that PMN infected with influenza virus were abortive and nonpermissive to the virus infection. These results indicated that PMN could phagocytose and inactivate a large amount of the virus in the presence of antibody, supporting the notion that PMN cooperated with antibody in eliminating swiftly the high virus titers in the lungs of mice infected with either inoculum of the virus (Fig. 2 and 3). In the present study, indeed, treatments with fMLP in vitro markedly potentiated the preventive effect of PMN on influenza virus propagation and both the cytotoxic and ADCC activities of PMN in the presence and absence of antibody (Fig. 7; Table 1). Furthermore, intranasal administration of fMLP to normal mice following infection resulted not only in an increase in PMN infiltration of the lung (Fig. 6C) but also in a significant decrease in virus titers in the early phase of infection (Fig. 6A), though in the intermediate phase they relapsed to a high level similar to that for control mice (Fig. 6A). This result was probably due to the short half-life of fMLP in the body (9). Further consecutive treatments (on days 1 and 3) of mice with fMLP increased the mortality rate of mice in spite of the prolongation of the decrease in virus titers (Fig. 6A and B). Since previous studies have suggested that tissue damage and destruction in the lung could be elicited by excessive infiltration and accumulation of PMN and macrophages (4, 28), the increase in the mortality of mice by consecutive fMLP treatment seems to reflect that interpretation (Fig. 6). In contrast, antiserum transfer in addition to fMLP treatment not only eliminated the increased mortality rate of mice elicited by the fMLP treatment alone (Fig. 6B) but also more markedly decreased virus titers and accelerated virus elimination (Fig. 6A) and further augmented the inflammation and accumulation of PMN compared to that observed with antiserum transfer or fMLP treatment alone (Fig. 6C). Thus, PMN play an essential role in the host defense in cooperation with the potent antibody response even against infection with a high inoculum of virulent influenza A virus. Assuming that highly pathogenic influenza viruses such as H5N1 avian virus and the 1918 pandemic virus lead to marked virus propagation in the lung and multiple organs and to excessive accumulation of PMN and macrophages in the lung and that they cause functional deficiency of organs and ultimately death, these results strongly suggest that monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies to highly pathogenic influenza viruses will be utilized for prophylaxis and therapy in pandemics and epidemics of the virus.
Tumpey et al. (48) also reported that alveolar macrophage depletion or total-phagocyte depletion in mice resulted in more rapid and higher mortality of mice and in higher virus titers than those in naïve mice with depleted PMN alone after primary infection with the human H1N1 virus. These results did not elucidate the role of macrophages in virus elimination in cooperation with antibody but demonstrated the significant role of macrophages in early protection against primary infection with the virulent H1N1 virus. My previous study had already shown the significance of alveolar macrophages in early-phase protection against primary infection with a high inoculum of the low-virulence virus (16). For mice infected with a virulent virus, however, the cooperative protective role of alveolar macrophages and/or mononuclear phagocytes with antibody was not clarified by the present study. Furthermore, in this study, although the passive transfer of anti-PR8 to MAb RB6-treated mice after virus infection elicited remarkable infiltration of the lung by alveolar macrophages and mononuclear phagocytes (monocytes from morphological observations) in the early to intermediate phases of infection (Fig. 5B), pulmonary virus titers in PMN-depleted mice were demonstrated to be higher than those in control mice (Fig. 2A to C). These data and the studies cited above suggested that alveolar macrophages and/or mononuclear phagocytes might effectively cooperate with PMN in virus elimination in the presence and absence of antibody. In a study using Fc
receptor knockout (FcR
–/–) mice, Huber et al. (23) reported that FcR
–/– mice were significantly more susceptible to lethal respiratory reinfection with a virulent influenza A/PR8 virus than FcR
+/+ mice after intranasal immunization with a influenza vaccine plus interleukin-12. In addition, using passive transfer of immune serum to naïve FcR
–/– and FcR
+/+ mice, they further showed that macrophages are capable of ingesting opsonized virus by Fc receptor-mediated phagocytosis and that FcR
–/– mice were highly susceptible to influenza virus infection even in the presence of anti-influenza virus antibody (23). The FcR
knockout mice used in their studies lacked two Fc
receptors, Fc
RI and Fc
RIII (43), and Fc
RI (31), and all of these FcRs were also expressed on the surfaces of PMN (17, 51). From their study, therefore, it appears likely that not only macrophages but also PMN might be included among the FcR-positive cells responsible for antibody-mediated viral clearance, and their results did not contradict the results of the present study.
It was recently reported that murine peritoneal macrophages could phagocytose apoptotic HeLa cells induced by influenza A virus infection and then diminish the virus multiplicity in the culture (13). Most recently, Hashimoto et al. (20) reported that both PMN and macrophages accumulated in the lungs of mice infected with influenza virus A/WSN (H1N1) could phagocytose the infected apoptotic cells and that alveolar macrophages from virus-infected mice had greater phagocytic activity than those from uninfected mice. The preventive effect of PMN on virus propagation in vivo and in vitro in this study (Fig. 2 and 3; Table 1) might include phagocytosis of apoptotic cells induced by virus infection, while inhibition of virus propagation by alveolar macrophages was not observed in MDCK cell cultures (Table 1). This discrepancy seemed to be attributable to the difference between the degrees of activation of the macrophages prepared in each study.
It has also been demonstrated that PMN could produce immunological mediators such as myeloperoxidase (55), activated oxygen and/or nitrogen species (41), and antibacterial and antiviral molecules such as defensins (17). Furthermore, alpha interferon and tumor necrosis factor alpha, produced by PMN, are known to have antiviral activity against influenza virus (30, 54). The preceding study in this series (14) also implied that calprotectin might participate in the preventive effect of PMN on virus propagation in vitro. The cooperative virus elimination by PMN and antibody seems to be based on a synergism of each antiviral capability and on the nonpermissiveness of PMN to influenza virus infection, in addition to virus neutralization and cytolysis by antibody alone and antibody plus complement, respectively.
Further studies are needed to elucidate the roles of the cooperation between PMN and macrophages in antibody-dependent protection against and recovery from influenza A virus infection and the role of phagocytosis of virus-infected apoptotic cells by both types of phagocytes in mice. However, in identifying the role of phagocytes in the host defense against influenza virus infection, the present results may provide important strategies for prophylaxis and therapy of severe infections with highly virulent influenza viruses.
Published ahead of print on 9 January 2008. ![]()
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