Endothelial Cells Use a Formin-Dependent Phagocytosis-Like Process to Internalize the Bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

ABSTRACT: Vascular endothelial cells act as gatekeepers that protect underlying tissue from blood-borne toxins and pathogens. Nevertheless, endothelial cells are able to internalize large fibrin clots and apoptotic debris from the bloodstream, although the precise mechanism of such phagocytosis-like uptake is unknown. We show that cultured primary human endothelial cells (HUVEC) internalize both pathogenic and non-pathogenic Listeria bacteria comparably, in a phagocytosis-like process. In contrast with previously studied host cell types, including intestinal epithelial cells and hepatocytes, we find that endothelial internalization of Listeria is independent of all known pathogenic bacterial surface proteins. Consequently, we exploited the internalization and intracellular replication of L. monocyto

SUBMITTER: Rengarajan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4859537 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature