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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 283, Issue 5, 2724-2733, February 1, 2008
Innate Immunity to Intraphagosomal Pathogens Is Mediated by Interferon Regulatory Factor 8 (IRF-8) That Stimulates the Expression of Macrophage-specific Nramp1 through Antagonizing Repression by c-Myc*![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 1
From the
Received for publication, September 13, 2007 , and in revised form, October 19, 2007.
Macrophages are a central arm of innate immune defense against intracellular pathogens. They internalize microbes into phagosomes where the invaders are being killed by oxygen and nitrogen reactive species. Despite this battery of antimicrobial molecules, some are able to thrive within the phagosome thus termed intraphagosomal pathogens among which are Salmonella, Leishmania, and Mycobacteria. In mice, a single dominant gene termed Nramp1/Slc11a1 controls innate resistance to such pathogens. This gene is expressed exclusively in myeloid cells. Previously, we have shown that the restricted expression of Nramp1 is regulated by a myeloid cell-specific transcription factor termed IRF-8/ICSBP. It is demonstrated here that the induction of Nramp1 expression in activated macrophages is accompanied by a promoter shift from a repression state elicited by c-Myc to an activation state elicited by the induction of IRF-8 in activated macrophages. This transition from repression to activation is facilitated by a competitive protein-protein interaction with the transcription factor Miz-1. To show that IRF-8 is directly involved in the elimination of intraphagosomal pathogens through the regulation of Nramp1 gene expression, we bred wild type as well as IRF-8 and Nramp1 null mouse strains and examined macrophages derived from bone marrow and peritoneum. Our results clearly show that the absence of IRF-8 and Nramp1 leads to the same phenotype; defective killing of intraphagosomal Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium and Mycobacterium bovis. Thus, interplay between repression and activation state of the Nramp1 promoter mediated by IRF-8 provides the molecular basis by which macrophages resist intraphagosomal pathogens at early stage after infection.
Mammals host defense against pathogens depends on both innate and adaptive immunity. Macrophages are essential components of innate immunity and play a key role in host defense mechanisms against invading pathogens. These invading foreign bodies activate the macrophages, which in response engulf and subsequently entrap the pathogens in the phagosome/lysosome compartment. In this specialized compartment, the pathogens are subjected to massive attack by reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates (1). In addition, macrophages mediate innate resistance to host infection by several antigenically unrelated intraphagosomal pathogens including Salmonella, Leishmania, and Mycobacterium. This is controlled by a single dominant gene termed solute carrier family 11 member a1 (Slc11a1)2 also known as natural resistance associated macrophage protein 1 (Nramp1), or Ity/Lsh/Bcg. Nramp1 is a proton/divalent cation antiporter with a unique role in innate resistance to intraphagosomal pathogens and autoimmune disease (for review, see Refs. 2-4). The exact function of Nramp1 as iron and divalent cation transporter is still controversial. It either functions to increase transphagosomal Fe2+ catalyzing the Haber-Weiss/Fenton reaction to generate the highly toxic hydroxyl radical essential for macrophage bactericidal activity. On the other hand, it is thought to deprive the intraphagosomal bacterium of Fe2+ and other divalent cations, which are critical for its survival in the phagosome (2). In mouse, Nramp1 has two alleles; one allele, Gly-169, restricts pathogen growth, whereas the second allele, Asp-169 (functionally null), is permissive for pathogen growth (5). Thus, a single gene product, Nramp1, is indispensable for innate immunity to intraphagosomal pathogens. Importantly, Nramp1 is exclusively expressed in monocyte/macrophage cells (5), whereas its family member Nramp2 is ubiquitously expressed. The transcription factor termed Myc interacting zinc finger protein 1 (Miz-1) mediates the activation of Nramp1 that can be repressed by c-Myc (25). However, this interaction between Miz-1 and c-Myc does not explain the macrophage-restricted expression of Nramp1 and its inducibility by interferon- (IFN- ) and LPS in comparison to its ubiquitously expressed homologue Nramp2.
Recently, we have demonstrated that Miz-1 interacts with another transcription factor termed interferon regulatory factor-8 (IRF-8) previously known as ICSBP. Furthermore, we have shown that these two factors in conjunction with a third partner, PU.1, synergistically activate Nramp1 (6). IRF-8 is expressed mainly in immune cells and its expression can be further induced by IFN-
Previously, we have shown that IRF-8 can interact with Miz-1 only in immune cells (6). This interaction leads to synergistic activation of the Nramp1 promoter that is not observed in the non-immune cell line. This synergistic interaction is further enhanced with PU.1. These results clarified the molecular basis for the macrophage-restricted expression of Nramp1 and its inducibility by IFN-
Animals—The mouse strains, C57BL/6J, 129/Sv (both were from Harlan Biotech, Israel), and C57BL/6J IRF-8-/- (17) were maintained in individually ventilated cages under pathogen-free conditions. The C57BL/6J IRF-8-/- mice were backcrossed with 129/Sv for 8 generations to replace the defective Nramp1 allele generating a new knock-out mouse strain 129/Sv IRF-8-/-. The presence of defective IRF-8 and functional Nramp1 were validated by PCR of genomic DNA from mouse tails. All animal work conformed to the guidelines of the animal care and use committee of the Technion.
Cell Lines—Murine bone marrow-derived RAW264.7 macrophage cell line was obtained from ATCC (Manassas, VA), CL2 macrophage cells, established from IRF-8 knock-out mice, were previously reported (9), R37 and R21 cells (constitutively expressing functional Nramp1 or antisense to Nramp1, respectively) were a kind gift from Dr. Barton (Southampton University, United Kingdom) (18). Cells were maintained in RPMI 1640, supplemented with 40 µM β-mercaptoethanol, 10% fetal calf serum, and antibiotics. 5 ng/ml M-CSF and CSF (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) were added to the growth medium of CL2 cells and 50 µg/ml of gentamycin was added to the growth medium of R37 and R21 cells. Treatment with IFN- Isolation of Bone Marrow and Peritoneal Macrophages—Bone marrow cells were isolated from femurs of the various mouse strains and cultured for 7 days in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 30% CCL1 cell culture supernatant, 20% heat inactivated fetal calf serum, and antibiotics in nontissue culture plates. Peritoneal macrophages were harvested as described previously (6). 2.5 x 107 cells were plated in tissue culture Petri dishes (100 mm) and kept at 37 °C and 6% CO2 for 4 h and then non-adherent cells were removed by 2 washes with PBS. Intracellular Pathogens—S. enterica serovar typhimurium 14028 (ATCC) stably expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) was kindly obtained from Dr. Yaron (Technion, Israel). Following 18 h growth (LB medium without antibiotics) the bacterial culture was diluted 1:10 and A600 was measured. Salmonella concentration was calculated as colony forming unit (CFU) per ml using 1 OD = 1.2 x 109 CFU/ml. The cells were washed once with PBS and resuspended in mammalian culture medium. Macrophages were infected at multiplicity of infection (m.o.i.) of 15-30. The Leishmania donovani stably expressing eGFP was a kind gift of Dr. Zilberstein (Technion, Israel). The cells were maintained in M199 culture medium with 10% heat-inactivated fetal calf serum and antibiotics at 26 °C that favors flagellate promastigote form as described (19). For the assays, the parasites were collected from end-log-phase cultures, centrifuged at 800 x g, washed with PBS, counted after fixation with paraformaldehyde, and adjusted to the required parasite m.o.i. of 10.
Macrophage Killing Assay—Killing assay with S. enterica serovar typhimurium was performed as described by Monak et al. (20) with minor modifications. Macrophages (either bone marrow derived or peritoneal) were washed twice with ice-cold PBS and the cells were gently scraped and plated at 3 x 105 cells/well in 24-well plates in a medium without antibiotics. The cells were either not treated or treated for 18 h with 100 units/ml IFN-
For killing assay with M. bovis (BCG), bone marrow-derived macrophages from various mouse strains were plated and activated with IFN- Plasmids—Mammalian expression vectors encoding for Miz-1, IRF-8, IRF-1, and PU.1 were all described previously (6). The expression plasmid for c-Myc in pCDNA3.1 was a gift of Dr. Eilers (Marburg University, Germany). The reporter construct -1555 containing murine Nramp1 prompter in the reporter vector pGL3 was a gift from Dr. Barton (Southampton University). The various 5' progressive Nramp1 promoter deletion constructs were generated by PCR and following sequence validation were cloned into pGL3 basic (Promega). Primer sequence is available upon request. Site-directed mutagenesis to the IFN-stimulated response element (ISRE, the binding site for IRF-8) and the PU.1 binding sites within the mouse Nramp1 promoter was performed using the QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene). Primer sequence is available upon request. Cells Transfections and Reporter Gene Assays—Assays were performed exactly as described before (6) using the Dual Luciferase assay kit (Promega). Luciferase activities were determined and normalized for transfection efficiency. -Fold of synergism was calculated as the ratio between the -fold of activation elicited by the two transfected factors divided by the sum of the -fold of activation for each factor alone. Each experiment was repeated at least 3 times. Bifluorescence Complementation (BiFC)—The plasmid IRF-8-YCC was previously described (23). The plasmid Miz-1-YNC was generated by PCR amplification of the coding region of Miz-1 with primers adding EcoRI and HindIII at the 5' and 3' ends, respectively, and cloned into the corresponding restriction sites in the plasmid YNC (23). 3.5 x 104 NIH3T3 cells/chamber were seeded in sterile 4-well slide chamber. 18 h later, cells were transfected by Lipofectamine (Invitrogen) with 0.25 µg of the YFP constructs and 0.5 µg of pHcRed1-C1 (Clontech) for 24 h. The later served as a control reporter plasmid to confirm that BiFC took place within a nucleus of a transfected cell. In addition, 0.75 µg of plasmid encoding for c-Myc was cotransfected as indicated. The cells were allowed to stand at 30 °C for 1 h, and YFP and red fluorescent protein signals were viewed under confocal microscopy.
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP)—RAW264.7 cells were grown to a final concentration of 1 x 107 with or without treatment with IFN- Retroviral Transduction—pMSCV-IRES-EGFP is a retroviral expression vector that has a bicistronic cassette that enables expression of IRES-driven EGFP, with no encoded gene in the first position. It was generated by digesting the bicistronic cassette from pIRES2-EGFP (Clontech) with XhoI and MfeI and cloned into pMSCV digested with XhoI and EcoRI. To generate the retroviral pMSCV-IRF8-IRES-EGFP expression vector, the cDNA for human IRF-8 was digested with PmeI and MfeI and cloned into the HpaI and EcoRI in the retroviral vector pMSCV-IRES-EGFP. Retroviruses were generated as described (25) by seeding 4 x 106 293FT cells in a 10-cm dish. The next day, cells were transfected using DNA-calcium phosphate precipitate containing 2.5 µg of plasmid pMD.G encoding vesicular stomatitis virus G protein, 7.5 µg of plasmid pMD.OGP encoding gag-pol, and 10 µg of the retroviral expression constructs. 48 h after transfection, the viral supernatant was collected, centrifuged at 800 x g, and used to infect bone marrow macrophages that were seeded at 7.5 x 106 cells/well in a 12-well plate in a final volume of 1.5 ml. 24 h later, 0.5 ml of medium was remove and replaced with 0.5 ml of freshly prepared viruses and Polybrene was added to a final concentration of 8 µg/ml. The plates were spinoculated at 1200 x g for 90 min at 33 °C. After 24 h, 1 ml of the medium was replaced with fresh medium and 1 day later transfection efficiency was monitored under a fluorescent microscope and the transduced cells were selected with puromycin (3 µg/ml) for an additional 7 days and then used for Salmonella killing assay. Statistical Analysis—Each experiment was repeated three times yielding similar results and statistical significance was determined by Student's t test with a p < 0.05.
Deletion Analysis of the Nramp1 Promoter Revealed the Binding Sites for IRF-8 and PU.1—Our previous studies provided the molecular basis for the restricted expression of Nramp1 in activated macrophages. This is due to synergistic interaction between Miz-1, IRF-8, and PU.1. However, the exact binding sites for the myeloid-specific factors were not determined. Computer aided analysis identified several putative binding sites for IRF-8 (termed ISRE) and PU.1 along the -1555 bp of the Nramp1 promoter region. To test which of the putative binding sites serve as ISRE and PU.1 binding sites, reporter gene constructs harboring progressive 5' promoter deletions were generated (see illustrations in Fig. 1A). RAW264.7 cells were cotransfected with these reporter constructs together with Miz-1 and IRF-8 (Fig. 1B, front row) as well as with PU.1 (Fig. 1B, back row). As expected, the full-length promoter construct (-1555) was synergistically activated by Miz-1 and IRF-8 (Fig. 1B, black bar, front row). This activation was further enhanced by PU.1 (Fig. 1B, black bar, back row). The synergistic effect of Miz-1 and IRF-8 was also noted with the reporter constructs -167 and -139 (gray bar and striped bar, front row, respectively). However, removing just four bases from -139 to -135 abolished PU.1 enhancement (dotted bar, back row). This 4-bp deletion, TTCC/GGAA, harbors a consensus binding site for PU.1. As expected, transfection with the -96 reporter construct exhibited no effect with PU.1 (checkered bar, back row) and in addition the synergistic effect of both IRF-8 and Miz-1 was abolished (checkered bar, front row). In this reporter construct, half of the palindrome GTTTCGAAAC was deleted. This palindrome fits the consensus of an ISRE and suggests that it serves as an IRF-8 binding site.
Site-directed mutagenesis was performed for these two ISRE and PU.1 binding sites. As seen in Fig. 1C, mutating the PU.1 binding site did not affect Miz-1 and IRF-8 synergistic activation of this mutated construct but the additional enhancement with PU.1 was abolished. Similarly, mutating the ISRE binding site resulted in loss of the synergistic effect between IRF-8 with Miz-1. These results allowed us to assign these two binding sites as PU.1 and ISRE, respectively.
To establish our findings that IRF-8 regulates Nramp1 expression by binding to its promoter, RAW264.7 cells were either not activated or activated with IFN- c-Myc Negates IRF-8 and Miz-1 Transcriptional Synergy on Nramp1 Promoter—As shown above, Nramp1 is induced in activated macrophages through synergistic association between IRF-8 and Miz-1. On the other hand, other reports demonstrated that c-Myc represses Nramp1 transcription by binding to Miz-1 and displacing the p300 co-activator, a paradigm for the repressive action of c-Myc (26-28). This suggested that Miz-1 interaction with either c-Myc or IRF-8 might affect Nramp1 enhanceosome activity leading to repression or activation, respectively.
To test the effect of c-Myc on the synergistic activation of the Nramp1 promoter by IRF-8 and Miz-1, reporter gene assays were performed. The Nramp1 reporter construct (-1555) was co-transfected with expression vectors for IRF-8, Miz-1, and c-Myc. As previously shown (6), transfection of Miz-1 alone was sufficient to significantly activate the promoter (Fig. 2A, lane 2), whereas IRF-8 and c-Myc alone exhibited no effect (Fig. 2A, lanes 3 and 4, respectively). As expected, cotransfection of Miz-1 and IRF-8 resulted in a significant activation of the promoter (
BiFC assay was employed to visualize Miz-1, IRF-8, and c-Myc interactions in living cells (29). Expression vectors for IRF-8 fused to the C-terminal region of the YFP (IRF-8-YCC) and for Miz-1 fused to the N-terminal region of the YFP (Miz-1-YNC) were constructed. These plasmids were transiently transfected into NIH3T3 cells either together or alone. As seen in Fig. 2B, expression of both IRF-8-YCC and Miz-1-YNC resulted in nuclear fluorescence of the transfected cells (
IRF-8 and PU.1 Are Important Regulators of Nramp1 Activation during Infection with Intraphagosomal Pathogens—We next wanted to study the significance of IRF-8 and PU.1 on Nramp1 expression during infection with intraphagosomal pathogens. For that purpose, RAW264.7 cells were transfected with the Nramp1 reporter construct (-139) or with the same construct harboring point mutations in the ISRE or PU.1 binding sites (see schematic illustration in Fig. 3A). Twenty h following transfection, cells were either not infected or infected with S. enterica serovar typhimurium (expressing GFP) at m.o.i. of 15 for 5 h. Infection efficiency was evaluated using fluorescent microscope, whereas the activation of the different Nramp1 promoters was measured by luciferase assay. As shown in Fig. 3B, the wild-type (WT) Nramp1 promoter is activated during S. enterica serovar typhimurium infection (normalized to uninfected cells) by an average of 1.9-fold (black bar). However, the mutated promoters remained at their basal activity level after infection and were not induced by the S. enterica serovar typhimurium (white and gray bars). These results show that intact ISRE and PU.1 binding sites are essential for Nramp1 activation and strongly suggests that IRF-8 and PU.1 are essential factors for Nramp1 expression in macrophages during S. enterica serovar typhimurium infection.
To further confirm the importance of IRF-8 for Nramp1 promoter activation during intraphagosomal infection, we used the protozoa L. donovani in similar reporter gene assays. RAW264.7 cells (WT for IRF-8 expression) and CL-2 cells (derived from IRF-8 knock-out mice (9)) were transfected with the Nramp1 reporter construct (-1555) and 4 h later the cells were infected with L. donovani promastigotes (expressing GFP) at m.o.i. of 10 for an additional 20 h. Infection efficiency was evaluated using a fluorescent microscope. Similar infection efficiencies were observed for both cell lines (Fig. 2C). Promoter activity was measured by luciferase assay and results were normalized to uninfected cells. Similar to the results observed with S. enterica serovar typhimurium, L. donovani activated Nramp1 in an IRF-8-dependent manner. Significant activation following infection was observed only in RAW264.7 cells ( 1.9-fold, Fig. 3B, black bars) and not in CL-2 cells, which are ablated for IRF-8 (Fig. 3B, white bars).
Nramp1 Is Essential for the Elimination of S. enterica Serovar typhimurium in Infected RAW264.7 Cells—Subsequent to establishing the molecular basis for induced expression of Nramp1 by IRF-8 and PU.1 in infected cells, we wanted to study its importance in macrophage-mediated killing of pathogens at early stages of infection. For that purpose, S. enterica serovar typhimurium killing assay was performed in vitro with RAW264.7 cells (expressing a mutated allele of Nramp1 (D169)), which stably express either functional Nramp1 (R37 cells), or Nramp1-antisense (R21 cells). These two cell lines were activated with IFN- and LPS for 20 h and then infected with S. enterica serovar typhimurium expressing eGFP as described under "Experimental Procedures." The infection efficiency was evaluated under fluorescent microscope. As seen in Fig. 4, a decrease of 60% in intracellular Salmonella was observed 2 h postinfection in the R37 cell line, which stably expresses functional Nramp1. As expected, no killing of intracellular pathogen was observed in R21 cells, which expresses Nramp1 antisense. This fits previous observations that Nramp1 is crucial for macrophage resistance to S. enterica serovar typhimurium (30).
Peritoneal Macrophages Derived from IRF-8-/- Mice Exhibit Impaired Killing of S. enterica Serovar typhimurium—To find a link between IRF-8 expression in macrophages and resistance to S. enterica serovar typhimurium, we used peritoneal macrophages, which are considered as professional macrophages. These cells were collected from both WT and IRF-8-/- mice and following activation with IFN-
To evaluate the efficiency of phagocytosis and the functioning of the developing phagosome, the cells were infected with S. typhimurium expressing GFP and following 45 min of invasion the cells were stained with LysoTracker Red (Cambrex), which stains acidic compartments in living cells, and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, which stains the nuclei. The cells were fixed and observed under fluorescent microscope. It is clear that both types of peritoneal macrophages equally phagocytized GFP expressing S. enterica serovar typhimurium, however, the Lyso-Tracker red staining of phagosomes of IRF-8-/- macrophages was significantly weaker, indicating that the phagosome is less acidified (Fig. 5B). This may be due to lack of Nramp1 expression leading to a significant reduction in the acidity of the phagosome as reported previously (31-33). In these experiments the IRF-8-/- mouse strain (129/Sv IRF-8-/-) was wild type for Nramp1 as will be elaborated hereafter.
Loss of Either IRF-8 or Nramp1 Results in an Aberrant Killing Response of Macrophage against S. enterica Serovar typhimurium and M. bovis (BCG)—Our studies thus far assign a pivotal role for IRF-8 in Nramp1 regulation and in innate resistance to intraphagosomal pathogens such as S. enterica serovar typhimurium. We next wanted to directly link the defective bactericidal response of IRF-8-/- macrophages with aberrant expression of Nramp1. The original IRF-8 knock-out mouse strain was generated in C57BL/J6, which also have a nonfunctional Nramp1 allele due to a single amino acid mutation (Asn-169) (5). Therefore, to genetically dissociate between the effect of IRF-8 and Nramp1 on the ability of macrophage to eliminate intraphagosomal pathogens, we had to generate a new mouse strain by cross-breeding for 8 generations the mouse strain 129/Sv harboring endogenous functional Nramp1 and the C57BL/J6 mouse strain ablated for IRF-8. A comparative S. enterica serovar typhimurium killing study was performed with 4 different mouse strains. The two wild type mouse strains, C57BL/J6, which is practically knock-out for Nramp1; IRF-8+/+ Nramp1-/-) and 129/Sv that harbors intact genes. In addition, 129/Sv IRF-8-/- (Nramp1+/+) and C57BL/J6 IRF-8-/-, which is also Nramp1 defective and thus practically a double knock-out mouse strain. Peritoneal macrophages were collected from these four mouse strains and following 18 h of activation with IFN-
Similarly, bone marrow macrophages were collected from these 4 mouse strains and after 6 days of in vitro cultivation the cells were activated with IFN-
To directly show that IRF-8 is an immediate regulator of Nramp1 in vivo, bone marrow macrophages were collected from the 129/Sv IRF-8-/- mouse strain and transduced with either empty pMSCV retroviral vector or with the same vector harboring IRF-8. After 7 days, the cells were activated with IFN-
Innate resistance to intraphagosomal pathogens is mediated by various genes enabling the elimination of the invader. Nramp1 was identified as one of the major constituents that confer mice resistance to such pathogens. In humans, aberrant expression of NRAMP1 is associated with susceptibility to infectious and autoimmune disease (34, 35).
Nramp1 is expressed exclusively in myeloid cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells (36-38). Our previous study demonstrated that synergistic activation of Nramp1 is mediated through association of Miz-1, a ubiquitously expressed factor, with the hematopoietic specific transcription factors IRF-8 and PU.1 and laid the molecular basis for the cell type restricted expression of Nramp1. PU.1 is constitutively expressed at relatively high levels in monocyte/macrophage cells and cannot account for the IFN-
Previous studies suggested that the transcriptional enhancement elicited by Miz-1 is due to interaction with the co-activator p300. This is repressed by c-Myc, at least in part, through competition for binding with p300 (42). Here we show that this repression is also due to c-Myc interfering with Miz-1 and IRF-8 interaction. Miz-1 is a multidomain transcription factor and its interaction with c-Myc is via helix-loop-helix domain that lies between amino acids 683 and 715 (11, 27). The interaction with IRF-8 is mediated through a PEST domain that spans amino acids 190-273 (6). This fits with previous studies demonstrating that IRF-8 association with other transcription factors is mediated through IRF association domain-PEST domain interaction. Therefore, it suggests that Miz-1 interacts with c-Myc and IRF-8 through different domains that are probably sequestered by the counterinteracting partner: c-Myc or IRF-8. We propose that in resting macrophages c-Myc levels are sufficient to repress Miz-1 activity by blocking possible interaction with p300 and IRF-8. When the cells are activated by IFN- The importance of Nramp1 to the killing of intraphagosomal pathogens is well established both in vitro and in vivo (45, 46). In this article, we have established the role of IRF-8 as an important regulator of Nramp1. To do that, we have generated a new IRF-8-/- mouse strain with a genetic background containing a functional Nramp1 allele. Macrophages from all 4 possible combinations of WT and mutated genes for IRF-8 and Nramp1 were studied. Infection of these cells with S. enterica serovar typhimurium or M. bovis (BCG) clearly demonstrated that ablation of either IRF-8 or Nramp1 led to a similar deficiency in killing activity following pathogen invasion as also seen with macrophages retrieved from the double ablated/mutated mouse strain. The fact that the killing efficiency of the IRF-8 null strain resembled that of the Nramp1 defective mouse strain and the double knock-out strain suggests that these two genes are phenotypically as well as genetically associated. Together with our Nramp1 promoter analysis we conclude that in vivo IRF-8 also controls the expression of Nramp1. To further establish this, we have complemented bone marrow-derived macrophages from IRF-8-/-/Nramp1+/+ mice with retroviral vector allowing IRF-8 expression. This led to partial recovery of the killing ability that was statistically significant. This killing activity was better than the killing activity observed for the double knock-out macrophages complemented with just IRF-8 (data not shown). These results point to the pivotal role of IRF-8 as a transcriptional regulator of the expression of Nramp1 in vivo. This is in line with previous publications describing the sensitivity of IRF-8 null mice to intraphagosomal pathogens such as Leishmania and Toxoplasma (47, 48). IRF-8 is a key factor not only for monocyte/macrophage differentiation but also to the function of mature macrophages. As such, it is a major regulator of IL-12p40 and the sensitivity to the various pathogens was solely attributed to lack of Th1 response in the IRF-8 knock-out mouse strain due to lack of IL-12 expression. Later, it was demonstrated that IRF-8 is also a key regulator of phagosome essential genes (phagocytic oxidase (12), inducible nitric-oxide synthetase (13)), inflammatory cytokine (16), and Toll receptors 4 and 9 (49, 50), which all are essential for macrophage-mediated killing of pathogens by affecting both innate and adaptive immune responses. Naturally, it is also involved indirectly being part of the signaling cascade of Toll receptors and IFNs (22, 51). To this list of genes regulated by IRF-8, which are essential for intraphagosomal pathogen elimination, we add Nramp1. A recent publication (21) looking at BXH-2 mice harboring a point mutation in the IRF association domain of IRF-8 (R294C) demonstrated that these mice were also susceptible to S. enterica serovar typhimurium to a level comparable with that seen for mice lacking functional Nramp1 or TLR4. In addition, these mice were permissive to M. bovis (BCG), despite a resistant Nramp1G169 allele, and were unable to control splenic bacterial replication, which continued for up to 8 weeks postinfection. These impaired IRF-8 R294C mice also demonstrated increased replication of the Plasmodium chabaudi AS malarial parasite during the first burst of blood parasitemia, and recurring waves of high blood parasitemia late during infection (21). The conclusions were that IRF-8 is required for orchestrating early innate responses and also long-term immune protection against unrelated intracellular pathogens. In general, these results are in line with our results. However, the results described here are related only to the early stages of macrophage infection in vitro. Under these experimental conditions, immune components such as adaptive immunity are not studied. To conclude, in this article we show that the diverse effects of IRF-8 on innate immunity are also funneled through macrophage-restricted regulation of Nramp1. The Nramp1 enhanceosome is subjected to a delicate balance between a repressor (c-Myc) during normal physiological condition and an activator (IRF-8) induced in response to infection with intraphagosomal pathogens. This interplay between repression and activation explain in molecular and genetic terms the ability of macrophages to eliminate such pathogens at early stages of infection.
* This work was supported in part by Israel Science Foundation Grant 536/01, the Center for the Study of Emerging Diseases, and the fund for the promotion of research at the Technion (to B. Z. L.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 972-4-8293345; Fax: 972-4-8293399; E-mail: blevi{at}technion.ac.il.
2 The abbreviations used are: Slc11a1, solute carrier family 11 member a1; Nramp1, natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1; Miz-1, Myc interacting zinc finger protein 1; IFN, interferon; IRF-8, interferon regulatory factor-8; ISRE, interferon-stimulated response element; BCG, bacille Calmette-Guerin; GFP, green fluorescent protein; CFU, colony forming unit; m.o.i., multiplicity of infection; BiFC, bifluorescence complementation; ChIP, chromatin immunoprecipitation; IL, interleukin; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; GFP, green fluorescent protein; eGFP, enhanced green fluorescent protein; YFP, yellow fluorescent protein; WT, wild type.
We thank Ranmal Samarasinghe for dedicated help in backcross breeding of 129/Sv IRF-8 knockout mice and Dr. Sima Yaron for help with Salmonella infection studies and critical reading of the manuscript.
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