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During mousepox in resistant ( C57BL/6) or susceptible ( BALB/c) strains of mice, stimulation of Th1 or Th2 cytokine immune response, respectively, is observed. Because mechanisms of different polarization of T cells remain elusive, in this study, we quantitatively assessed the phenotype of antigen-presenting cells ( APCs) involved in ectromelia virus ( ECTV) antigen presentation and cluster formation with effector cells in secondary lymphoid organs of BALB/c and C57 BL/6 mice. We showed that both strains of mice display similar dynamics and kinetics of viral antigen presentation by CD11c+, CD11b+, and CD19+ cells. CD11c+ and CD11b+ cells highly participated in viral antigen presentation during all stages of mousepox, whereas CD19+ cells presented viral peptides later in infection. The main population of dendritic cells ( DCs) engaged in ECTV antigen presentation and cell junction formation with effector cells was a population of myeloid CD11b+ DCs (m DCs). We suggest that, on the one hand, ECTV may differentially affect the functions of APCs depending on the strain of mice. On the other hand, we suggest that some types of APCs, such as m DCs or other DCs subsets, have different abilities to direct the shape of immune response depending on the host resistance to mousepox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mannosylated lipoarabinomanan (ManLAM) from mycobacterial species possesses strong anti-apoptotic action. Here we examined the ability of ManLAM isolated from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv to alter expression profiles of apoptosis-related genes in mouse macrophages infected with Mycobacterium bovis BCG Danish strain. ManLAM suppressed BCG-induced apoptosis and activities of caspase-1, -3, -8 and 9. Mouse Apoptosis Gene Array showed that ManLAM significantly down-regulated pro-apoptotic and proinflammatory genes: caspase-1, -3, -7, -8 and -9, TNF-alpha/TNFSF2, Fas/TNFRSF6, Bax-alpha, as well as IL-12 p35 and iNOS simultaneously up-regulating anti-apoptotic genes such as Bcl-2 and Mcl-1. The effect of ManLAM was contrary to BCG-induced up-regulation of proapoptotic and pro-inflammatory genes and consistent with the functional data.

The mannosylated lipoarabinomannan (ManLAM) from mycobacterial species possesses strong immunomodulatory effects. Here we examined the ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ManLAM to interfere with the apoptotic response of mouse monocyte cell line, RAW 264.7 infected with Mycobacterium bovis BCG Danish strain. Incubation of BCG-infected monocytes with ManLAM decreased production of NO and the numbers of apoptotic cells which synergized with the polarization of mitochondrial membrane. Activities of caspase-1, -3, -8 and 9 followed pattern of apoptosis suppression by ManLAM, except for caspase-1, which showed no significant change in activity. ManLAM also stabilized anti-apoptotic ratio of bcl-2/bax expression in BCG-infected cells and blocked activation of Fas/FasL-induced pathway of apoptosis. Thus, ManLAM, apart from blocking mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis, may induce several other pathways regulating apoptotic response in BCG-infected mouse monocytes.