Korean J Parasitol.  2009 Sep;47(3):205-212. 10.3347/kjp.2009.47.3.205.

Proinflammatory Cytokine and Nitric Oxide Production by Human Macrophages Stimulated with Trichomonas vaginalis

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Environmental Biology & Medical Parasitology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul 133-791, Korea. jsryu@hanyang.ac.kr
  • 2Department Environmental Medical Biology and Institute of Tropical Medicine, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Korea.
  • 3Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
  • 4Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
  • 5Indianhead International School, Uijeongbu 480-701, Korea.

Abstract

Trichomonas vaginalis commonly causes vaginitis and perhaps cervicitis in women and urethritis in men and women. Macrophages are important immune cells in response to T. vaginalis infection. In this study, we investigated whether human macrophages could be involved in inflammation induced by T. vaginalis. Human monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDM) were co-cultured with T. vaginalis. Live, opsonized-live trichomonads, and T. vaginalis lysates increased proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6 by HMDM. The involvement of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB signaling pathway in cytokine production induced by T. vaginalis was confirmed by phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of p65 NF-kappaB. In addition, stimulation with live T. vaginalis induced marked augmentation of nitric oxide (NO) production and expression of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) levels in HMDM. However, trichomonad-induced NF-kappaB activation and TNF-alpha production in macrophages were significantly inhibited by inhibition of iNOS levels with L-NMMA (NO synthase inhibitor). Moreover, pretreatment with NF-kappaB inhibitors (PDTC or Bay11-7082) caused human macrophages to produce less TNF-alpha. These results suggest that T. vaginalis stimulates human macrophages to produce proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha, and NO. In particular, we showed that T. vaginalis induced TNF-alpha production in macrophages through NO-dependent activation of NF-kappaB, which might be closely involved in inflammation caused by T. vaginalis.

Keyword

Trichomonas vaginalis; human monocyte-derived macrophage; proinflammatory cytokine; nitric oxide; iNOS; NF-kappaB

MeSH Terms

Animals
Cells, Cultured
Cytokines/*immunology
Humans
Macrophages/*immunology/parasitology
Nitric Oxide/*immunology
Trichomonas Infections/*immunology/parasitology
Trichomonas vaginalis/*immunology
Full Text Links
  • KJP
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr