Macrophages and hepatocytic cells as chemokine producers in murine listeriosis

The major target organ of systemic infection with the intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is the liver, to where inflammatory leukocytes are rapidly recruited. We determined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction the early chemokine response in the liver after systemic infection of mice with listeriae, and in parallel compared chemokine release from macrophages and hepatocytic cells in vitro. Murine bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM) grown in fetal calf serum-supplemented medium were used as macrophages and the TIB75 cell line as hepatocytic cells. Within 1-3 hours, gene expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, MIP-2, KC, and interferon-γ inducible protein-10 (IP-10) was upregulated in liver tissue of infected mice. BMM infected in vitro with L. monocytogenes showed a generalized chemokine response, and readily released MCP-1, MIP-1α, MIP-2, and KC, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In contrast, the chemokine response of hepatocytic cells was more restricted, and infection induced MCP-1 and KC, but not MIP-2 and MIP-1α. Interferon γ enhanced chemokine release from hepatocytic cells, but unexpectedly had either no or a negative effect on chemokine secretion by BMM cultured in serum-supplemented medium. Listeriolysin (Hly)-negative avirulent listeriae as well as listeriae killed by heat or gentamycin initiated a similar chemokine response in BMM and hepatocytic cells as did wild-type L. monocytogenes. Stimulation of hepatocytic cells with the monokines, tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin (IL-)1α, bur not IL-6, augmented liberation of chemokines. Together, our data demonstrate an early hepatic chemokine response to L. monocytogenes in murine listeriosis. Probably, not only macrophages but also parenchymal cells participate in chemokine production.