IL-6 deficiency accelerates cerebral cryptococcosis and alters glial cell responses.

ABSTRACT: Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) is an opportunistic encapsulated fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis in immunosuppressed individuals. Since IL-6 is important for blood-brain barrier support and its deficiency has been shown to facilitate Cn brain invasion, we investigated the impact of IL-6 on systemic Cn infection in vivo, focusing on central nervous system (CNS) colonization and glial responses, specifically microglia and astrocytes. IL-6 knock-out (IL-6^-/-) mice showed faster mortality than C57BL/6 (Wild-type) and IL-6^-/- supplemented with recombinant IL-6 (rIL-6; 40 pg/g/day) mice. Despite showing early lung inflammation but no major histological differences in pulmonary cryptococcosis progression among the experimental groups, IL-6^-

SUBMITTER: Reguera-Gomez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11437997 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature