Resident alveolar macrophages are susceptible to and permissive of Coxiella burnetii infection.

ABSTRACT: Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, is a zoonotic disease with potentially life-threatening complications in humans. Inhalation of low doses of Coxiella bacteria can result in infection of the host alveolar macrophage (AM). However, it is not known whether a subset of AMs within the heterogeneous population of macrophages in the infected lung is particularly susceptible to infection. We have found that lower doses of both phase I and phase II Nine Mile C. burnetii multiply and are less readily cleared from the lungs of mice compared to higher infectious doses. We have additionally identified AM resident within the lung prior to and shortly following infection, opposed to newly recruited monocytes entering the lung during infection, as being most susceptible to infection. The

SUBMITTER: Calverley M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3526480 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature