Differences in local immune cell landscape between Q fever and atherosclerotic abdominal aortic aneurysms identified by multiplex immunohistochemistry.
Elife
; 112022 02 09.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35137689
ABSTRACT
Background:
Chronic Q fever is a zoonosis caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii which can manifest as infection of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Antibiotic therapy often fails, resulting in severe morbidity and high mortality. Whereas previous studies have focused on inflammatory processes in blood, the aim of this study was to investigate local inflammation in aortic tissue.Methods:
Multiplex immunohistochemistry was used to investigate local inflammation in Q fever AAAs compared to atherosclerotic AAAs in aorta tissue specimen. Two six-plex panels were used to study both the innate and adaptive immune systems.Results:
Q fever AAAs and atherosclerotic AAAs contained similar numbers of CD68+ macrophages and CD3+ T cells. However, in Q fever AAAs, the number of CD68+CD206+ M2 macrophages was increased, while expression of GM-CSF was decreased compared to atherosclerotic AAAs. Furthermore, Q fever AAAs showed an increase in both the number of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and CD3+CD8-FoxP3+ regulatory T cells. Finally, Q fever AAAs did not contain any well-defined granulomas.Conclusions:
These findings demonstrate that despite the presence of pro-inflammatory effector cells, persistent local infection with C. burnetii is associated with an immune-suppressed microenvironment.Funding:
This work was supported by SCAN consortium European Research Area - CardioVascualar Diseases (ERA-CVD) grant [JTC2017-044] and TTW-NWO open technology grant [STW-14716].Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Q Fever
/
Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal
/
Atherosclerosis
/
Adaptive Immunity
/
Immunity, Innate
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Elife
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Netherlands