Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae induces caspase-8-dependent extrinsic apoptosis and p53- and ROS-dependent intrinsic apoptosis in murine alveolar macrophages.

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (MO) is a principle causative agent of chronic respiratory disease in ruminants, including sheep, goats, and deer, posing a great threat to the ruminant industry worldwide. However, the pathogenesis of MO infection still remains not well understood and needs further clarification. Here we report a time-dependent apoptosis in cultured murine alveolar macrophage (MH-S) cell lines in response to MO infection in vitro. Mechanistically, MO infection activated apoptosis in MH-S cells through caspase-8-dependent extrinsic pathway and through tumor protein 53 (p53)- and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent intrinsic mitochondrial pathways. Moreover, MO infection promoted both transcription and translation of proinflammatory cytokine genes including interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), IL-18, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), in a caspase-8-, p53-, and ROS-dependent manner, implying a potential link between MO-induced inflammation and apoptotic cell death. Collectively, our results suggest that MO infection induces the activation of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways in cultured MH-S cells, which is related to upregulated expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Our findings will contribute to the elucidation of pathogenesis in MO infection and provide valuable reference for the development of new strategies for controlling MO infection.

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae-derived lipid-associated membrane proteins induce cytokine secretion in mouse peritoneal macrophages through TLR2 signalling.

BACKGROUND: Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovi) is the causative agent of chronic non-progressive pneumonia in sheep, goats, bighorn, and wild small ruminants. However, the mechanism of infection and immune response to M. ovi remain unclear. Invading microbes express lipid-associated membrane proteins (LAMPs) on the cell surface that interact with host cells to facilitate infection, and are thus the major molecules recognised by the host immune system. Upon LAMP recognition, Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and NLRP3 inflammasome sense the pathogens and signalling pathways for cytokine secretion. In this study, we investigated whether M. ovi and M. ovi-derived LAMPs are immuno-biologically active compounds capable of activating mouse peritoneal macrophages and explored the underlying mechanism. RESULTS: After infection of wild-type mice with M. ovi, the expression of TLR2 and NLRP3 at the transcriptional and translational levels was determined with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and flow cytometry. In addition, the cytokine levels and associated pathways were detected in infected wild-type, Tlr2-/-, and Nlrp3-/- mice via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and western blotting. The nuclear factor (NF)-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathways were found to mediate the expression of inflammatory cytokines in M. ovi or M. ovi-derived LAMP-infected peritoneal macrophages, and cytokines were not induced in Tlr2-/- and/or Nlrp3-/- macrophages. CONCLUSION: Host cytokine production is activated in response to M. ovi-derived LAMPs through the NF-κB and MAPK signalling pathway via TLR2.

Improving Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae culture medium by a comparative transcriptome method.

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (Mo) is difficult to culture, resulting in many difficulties in related research and application. Since nucleotide metabolism is a basic metabolism affects growth, this study conducted a "point-to-point" comparison of the corresponding growth phases between the Mo NM151 strain and the Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri (Mmc) PG3 strain. The results showed that the largest difference in nucleotide metabolism was found in the stationary phase. Nucleotide synthesis in PG3 was mostly de novo, while nucleotide synthesis in NM151 was primarily based on salvage synthesis. Compared with PG3, the missing reactions of NM151 referred to the synthesis of deoxythymine monophosphate. We proposed and validated a culture medium with added serine to fill this gap and prolong the stationary phase of NM151. This solved the problem of the fast death of Mo, which is significant for related research and application.

Capsular Polysaccharide of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Induces Sheep Airway Epithelial Cell Apoptosis via ROS-Dependent JNK/P38 MAPK Pathways.

In an attempt to better understand the pathogen-host interaction between invading Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae) and sheep airway epithelial cells, biological effects and possible molecular mechanism of capsular polysaccharide of M. ovipneumoniae (CPS) in the induction of cell apoptosis were explored using sheep bronchial epithelial cells cultured in air-liquid interface (ALI). The CPS of M. ovipneumoniae was first isolated and purified. Results showed that CPS had a cytotoxic effect by disrupting the integrity of mitochondrial membrane, accompanied with an increase of reactive oxygen species and decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm). Of importance, the CPS exhibited an ability to induce caspase-dependent cell apoptosis via both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways. Mechanistically, the CPS induced extrinsic cell apoptosis by upregulating FAS/FASL signaling proteins and cleaved-caspase-8 and promoted a ROS-dependent intrinsic cell apoptosis by activating a JNK and p38 signaling but not ERK1/2 signaling of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathways. These findings provide the first evidence that CPS of M. ovipneumoniae induces a caspase-dependent apoptosis via both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways in sheep bronchial epithelial cells, which may be mainly attributed by a ROS-dependent JNK and p38 MAPK signaling pathways.

Elongation Factor Tu and Heat Shock Protein 70 Are Membrane-Associated Proteins from Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Capable of Inducing Strong Immune Response in Mice.

Chronic non-progressive pneumonia, a disease that has become a worldwide epidemic has caused considerable loss to sheep industry. Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae) is the causative agent of interstitial pneumonia in sheep, goat and bighorn. We here have identified by immunogold and immunoblotting that elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP 70) are membrane-associated proteins on M. ovipneumonaiea. We have evaluated the humoral and cellular immune responses in vivo by immunizing BALB/c mice with both purified recombinant proteins rEF-Tu and rHSP70. The sera of both rEF-Tu and rHSP70 treated BALB/c mice demonstrated increased levels of IgG, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-12(p70), IL-4, IL-5 and IL-6. In addition, ELISPOT assay showed significant increase in IFN-γ+ secreting lymphocytes in the rHSP70 group when compared to other groups. Collectively our study reveals that rHSP70 induces a significantly better cellular immune response in mice, and may act as a Th1 cytokine-like adjuvant in immune response induction. Finally, growth inhibition test (GIT) of M. ovipneumoniae strain Y98 showed that sera from rHSP70 or rEF-Tu-immunized mice inhibited in vitro growth of M. ovipneumoniae. Our data strongly suggest that EF-Tu and HSP70 of M. ovipneumoniae are membrane-associated proteins capable of inducing antibody production, and cytokine secretion. Therefore, these two proteins may be potential candidates for vaccine development against M. ovipneumoniae infection in sheep.

Molecular characterization of the heat shock protein 70 gene in Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae.

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a species of mycoplasma bacteria that commonly infects the respiratory tract, causing respiratory disease in sheep and goats worldwide. In the current study, the 70-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) gene was cloned, sequenced and analyzed in 14 clinical isolates of M. ovipneumoniae. Results showed that, compared to the reference Y98 strain, the open-reading frames (ORFs) of Hsp70 gene in all isolates were 1818 base pairs (bp). Three nucleotides of TCA were inserted at 1,776 bp, resulting in insertion of the amino acid glutamine at amino acid position 593. The neighbor-joining trees, constructed using the Hsp70 gene, exhibited that the closest genetic relationship occurred between M. ovipneumoniae and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, which was consistent with the one based on the whole genome comparisons between these two mycoplasma species. Therefore, these results suggest that the Hsp70 gene, rather than 16S ribosomal RNA, was suitable as a potential molecular marker for evaluating the genetic relationship of M. ovipneumoniae with other bacterial species.