Staphylococcus epidermidis is commonly involved in biomaterial-
associated infections. Bacterial small colony variants
(SCV) seem to be well adapted to persist intracellularly in professional phagocytes evading the host immune response. We
studied the expression of PD-L1/L2 on macrophages infected
with clinical isolates of S. epidermidis SCV and their
parent wild type (WT) strains. The cytokine pattern which is
triggered by the examined strains was also analysed. In the
study, we infected macrophages with S. epidermidis WT
and SCV strains. Persistence and release from macrophages
were monitored via lysostaphin protection assays. Moreover,
the effect of IFN-γ pre-treatment on bacterial internalisation
was investigated. Expression of PD-L1/L2 molecules was
analysed with the use of FACS. Inflammatory reaction was
measured by IL-10, TNF-α ELISAs, and transcriptional induction
of TNF-α. Our study revealed that clinical SCV isolates
were able to persist and survive in macrophages for at
least 3 days with a low cytotoxic effect and a reduced proinflammatory
response as compared to WT strains. Bacteria
upregulated PD-L1/L2 expression on macrophages as compared
to non-stimulated cells. The results demonstrated that
the ability of S. epidermidis SCVs to induce elevated levels of
anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, and reduced transcriptional
induction of TNF-α, together with expression of PD-L1
on macrophages and the ability to persist intracellularly
without damaging the host cell could be the key factor contributing
to chronicity of SCV infections.
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