Coxiella burnetii, the agent of Q fever, replicates within trophoblasts and induces a unique transcriptional response.

ABSTRACT: Q fever is a zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular bacterium typically found in myeloid cells. The infection is a source of severe obstetrical complications in humans and cattle and can undergo chronic evolution in a minority of pregnant women. Because C. burnetii is found in the placentas of aborted fetuses, we investigated the possibility that it could infect trophoblasts. Here, we show that C. burnetii infected and replicated in BeWo trophoblasts within phagolysosomes. Using pangenomic microarrays, we found that C. burnetii induced a specific transcriptomic program. This program was associated with the modulation of inflammatory responses that were shared with inflammatory agonists, such as TNF, and more specific responses involving genes related to pregnancy d

SUBMITTER: Ben Amara A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3001886 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature