TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of the humoral and cellular immune responses between body and head lice following bacterial challenge
AU - Kim, Ju Hyeon
AU - Min, Jee Sun
AU - Kang, Jae Soon
AU - Kwon, Deok Ho
AU - Yoon, Kyong Sup
AU - Strycharz, Joseph
AU - Koh, Young Ho
AU - Pittendrigh, Barry Robert
AU - Clark, J. Marshall
AU - Lee, Si Hyeock
N1 - This work was supported by a grant from the NIH/NIAID (5 R01 AI045062-06) to JMC and SHL. We thank the Body Louse Genome Consortium for their efforts in the annotation the P.h. humanus genome (Kirkness et al., 2010) and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - The differences in the immune response between body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus, and head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, were investigated initially by measuring the proliferation rates of two model bacteria, a Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and a Gram-negative Escherichia coli, following challenge by injection. Body lice showed a significantly reduced immune response compared to head lice particularly to E. coli at the early stage of the immune challenge. Annotation of the body louse genome identified substantially fewer immune-related genes compared with other insects. Nevertheless, all required genetic components of the major immune pathways, except for the immune deficiency (Imd) pathway, are still retained in the body louse genome. Transcriptional profiling of representative genes involved in the humoral immune response, following bacterial challenge, revealed that both body and head lice, regardless of their developmental stages, exhibited an increased immune response to S. aureus but little to E. coli. Head lice, however, exhibited a significantly higher phagocytotic activity against E. coli than body lice, whereas the phagocytosis against S. aureus differed only slightly between body and head lice. These findings suggest that the greater immune response in head lice against E. coli is largely due to enhanced phagocytosis and not due to differences in the humoral immune response. The reduced phagocytotic activity in body lice could be responsible, in part, for their increased vector competence.
AB - The differences in the immune response between body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus, and head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, were investigated initially by measuring the proliferation rates of two model bacteria, a Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and a Gram-negative Escherichia coli, following challenge by injection. Body lice showed a significantly reduced immune response compared to head lice particularly to E. coli at the early stage of the immune challenge. Annotation of the body louse genome identified substantially fewer immune-related genes compared with other insects. Nevertheless, all required genetic components of the major immune pathways, except for the immune deficiency (Imd) pathway, are still retained in the body louse genome. Transcriptional profiling of representative genes involved in the humoral immune response, following bacterial challenge, revealed that both body and head lice, regardless of their developmental stages, exhibited an increased immune response to S. aureus but little to E. coli. Head lice, however, exhibited a significantly higher phagocytotic activity against E. coli than body lice, whereas the phagocytosis against S. aureus differed only slightly between body and head lice. These findings suggest that the greater immune response in head lice against E. coli is largely due to enhanced phagocytosis and not due to differences in the humoral immune response. The reduced phagocytotic activity in body lice could be responsible, in part, for their increased vector competence.
KW - Bacterial challenge
KW - Human lice
KW - Immune response
KW - Pediculus humanus capitis
KW - Pediculus humanus humanus
KW - Phagocytosis
KW - Vector competence
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ibmb.2011.01.011
DO - 10.1016/j.ibmb.2011.01.011
M3 - Article
C2 - 21296152
AN - SCOPUS:79953064628
SN - 0965-1748
VL - 41
SP - 332
EP - 339
JO - Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
JF - Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
IS - 5
ER -