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From the Department of Trauma Surgery,*
University of
Freiburg Medical School, Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany; the Department of
Surgery,
University of Louisville School of
Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky; and the Department of
Pathology,
University of Michigan Medical
School, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| Abstract |
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and monocyte chemoattractant-1) chemokines.
In the absence of the costimulus, C5a or MAC did not induce
chemokine generation. In in vivo studies, C5a
and MAC alone caused limited or no intrapulmonary generation of
chemokines, but in the presence of a costimulus (IgG immune
complexes) C5a and MAC caused synergistic intrapulmonary generation of
C-X-C and C-C chemokines but not of tumor necrosis factor
.
Under these conditions increased neutrophil accumulation
occurred, as did lung injury. These observations suggest that
C5a and MAC function synergistically with a costimulus to enhance
chemokine generation and the intensity of the lung inflammatory
response.
| Introduction |
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The role of complement activation products in inflammatory
responses has been confirmed by a number
of experimental studies. C5a has been demonstrated to be required for
the full development of injury in a variety of inflammatory
models.7-9
Although C5a is traditionally known for its
powerful chemotactic activity for neutrophils, C5a and MAC have also
been shown to activate endothelial cells, resulting in surface
expression of P-selectin.10,11
Additionally, both C3a and
C5a have been shown to induce the release of cytokines interleukin-1
(IL-1) or tumor necrosis factor
(TNF
), prostaglandins, and
leukotrienes from phagocytes.7
MAC in sublytic
concentrations enhances production of endothelial intercellular
adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and E-selectin in the presence of low
concentrations of TNF
and directly induces endothelial cell
production of interleukin-8 (IL-8) and monocyte chemoattractant
protein-1 (MCP-1).11-13
MAC can directly activate
monocytes, leading to cytokine and oxidant production.14
These findings underscore the diverse roles of complement activation
products in the inflammatory cascade that leads to tissue injury.
Although studies of the role of complement in acute inflammatory responses have suggested that complement depletion or blockade is effective in suppressing the inflammatory response, less is known about the relationship of complement activation products to chemokine generation and attendant effects on lung injury. In IgG immune complex-induced alveolitis in rats, injury has been shown to require whole complement (based on complement depletion procedures), C5a, neutrophils, and chemokines.15-18 In the current study we sought to determine whether C5a or MAC, alone or together with a costimulus (IgG immune complexes), would affect chemokine generation in vitro and in vivo. In the findings presented here, neither C5a nor MAC alone caused significant C-X-C or C-C chemokine generation either in vitro or in vivo. However, in the presence of a costimulus chemokine generation was greatly enhanced. In the lung, this led to intensified neutrophil recruitment and enhanced lung injury.
| Materials and Methods |
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Chemicals and reagents were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO) unless otherwise specified. Human recombinant C5a was purchased from Fluka Chemical Corp. (Ronkonkoma, NY). Purified human complement components (C59) were obtained from Quidel, Inc. (San Diego, CA).
Isolation and Culture Conditions for Alveolar Macrophages
Rat alveolar macrophages were isolated by repeatedly lavaging lungs of anesthetized, healthy animals. After centrifugation of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids, cells were resuspended in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (Whittaker Bioproducts, Wakersville, MA) supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (HyClone Laboratories, Inc., Logan, UT), plated in 48-well tissue culture plates (Corning, Inc., New York, NY) at a concentration of 1 x 106 cells/well, and allowed to settle for at least 1 hour. Wells were then washed with medium to remove nonadherent cells and treatment conditions were applied as indicated, with a total volume of 1 ml per well. Immune complexes were formed by incubation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with rabbit anti-BSA in a molar ratio of 1:4. The precipitate was centrifuged and then resuspended in medium at a final concentration of 10 µg/ml. C5a was added to some wells in a concentration of 50 ng/ml (5 nmol/L). Assembly of the MAC complex was accomplished as previously described.14 Formation of the C5b-like activation product was accomplished by oxidation of C5 with chloramine-T.19 Briefly, 100 µg of C5 were incubated with 100 µl of 0.32 mmol/L chloramine-T in 100 µl veronal-buffered saline (pH 7.4). Oxidation was stopped by addition of 100 µl methionine (1 mmol/L). Formation of the C56 complex was achieved by addition of 200 µg C6 and incubation for 24 hours at 37°C. For assembly of the MAC, some wells containing alveolar macrophages were incubated with 10 µg C56 activation product together with 20 µg C7. For incomplete assembly of MAC, the addition of C7 was omitted. After a medium change to remove excess C57 complement components, C8 and C9 were added (20 µg each) to wells and allowed to incubate for 30 minutes. A final medium change to remove excess complement components was followed by addition of immune complexes. At this concentration of MAC no cytolysis occurred, as demonstrated microscopically with trypan blue staining (data not shown). As negative controls, macrophages were treated with only BSA, anti-BSA, C5a, or MAC. After an incubation period of 4 hours cell supernatant fluids were collected and used for chemokine quantitation.
TNF
Quantitation
Cell culture supernatants and BAL fluids were evaluated for TNF
activity using a standard WEHI cell cytotoxicity assay as
previously reported.20
Animal Model of Lung Injury and Intrapulmonary Assembly of MAC
Male Long-Evans specific pathogen-free rats (275300 g, Charles River Breeding Laboratories, Inc., Portage, MI) were anesthetized by intraperitoneal ketamine (15 mg/100 mg body weight). Lung injury was produced by intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune complexes as described elsewhere.15 Briefly, 1.25 mg of polyclonal goat anti-BSA in a total volume of 300 µl were instilled intratracheally followed by intravenous administration of 10 mg BSA together with trace amounts of 125I-BSA. Negative control animals received anti-BSA intratracheally in the absence of the intravenous infusion of 10 mg BSA. Some animals received 2.5 µg C5a intratracheally together with the anti-BSA. Special procedures for intrapulmonary assembly of MAC were required in order not to preassemble the entire complex, which could not be inserted into cell membranes.21 For in vivo assembly of the MAC, 15 µg C56 complex (formed as described above) were instilled intratracheally during inspiration together with 30 µg C7 in a volume of 200 µl. For incomplete assembly of MAC a control group received C56 intratracheally in a volume of 200 µl without addition of C7. After 10 minutes, C8 and C9 were then intratracheally administered (30 µg each) together with anti-BSA in a total volume of 200 µl (as described above), followed by the intravenous administration of BSA. Negative control animals received complement preparations in the same volumes together with anti-BSA, which were instilled intratracheally (with omission of the intravenous administration of BSA). Animals tolerated the two intratracheal challenges with no apparent difficulty; postsurgical recovery was comparable to animal groups receiving a single administration of 300 µl anti-BSA intratracheally. Animals were sacrificed after 4 hours and BAL fluids collected by instillation of 5 ml phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (pH 7.4), flushing, and withdrawing 3 times via an intratracheal cannula. After adding a protease inhibitor cocktail (1 µg/ml leupeptin, 1 µg/ml aprotinin, 10 µg/ml trypsin inhibitor, 1 µg/ml pepstatin) samples were centrifuged at 3000 x g for 10 minutes, pellets were resuspended for neutrophil counts, and supernatants used for chemotaxis evaluation and chemokine quantitation. For the measurement of vascular permeability, the lung vasculature was flushed with 10 ml PBS via pulmonary artery injection. Vascular permeability indices, as a measure of lung injury, were determined by comparing the amount of 125I-BSA present in lung parenchyma to the amount present in 1 ml blood obtained from the inferior vena cava at the time of death.
Quantitation of Chemokines
Chemokine detection was performed using antibody-sandwich
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Purification of antibodies
used for the macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and
cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) ELISA and the
biological activity of these antibodies have been described
elsewhere.17
MIP-2 anti-serum was obtained from rabbit
serum. Rabbit serum rich in anti-CINC was kindly provided by Dr. Arthur
Whittwer (Monsanto Corp., St. Louis, MO). The antibody and standard
protein used for macrophage inflammatory protein-1
(MIP-1
) ELISA
quantitation was purchased from Peprotech, Inc. (Rocky Hill, NJ).
Anti-MCP-1 antibodies were acquired from PharMingen (San Diego, CA).
rrMCP-1 protein was purchased from BioSource International (Camarillo,
CA). Biotinylation steps were performed with EZ-Link
NHS-LC-Biotinylation Kit (Pierce, Rockford, IL) according to the
manufacturer's instructions. Immulon 4 Removawell Strips (Dynatech
Laboratories, Inc., Chantilly, VA) were coated with 10 µg/ml 50
µl/well anti-rat MIP-2 antibody using a 0.1 mol/L carbonate coating
buffer (pH 9.2). After overnight coating (4°C) plates were washed 3
times (microplate autowasher EL 403, Bio-Tek Instruments, Inc.,
Winooski, VT) and nonspecific binding blocked with 2% BSA in PBS.
Samples and standards were loaded into microtiter wells in a volume of
100 µl per well and incubated for 1 hour at 37°C. After four
washing steps, 100 µl 5 µg/ml biotinylated antibody were added per
well and incubated for 1 hour. After another incubation with a
streptavidin horseradish-peroxidase conjugate (Zymed Laboratories,
South San Francisco, CA), the assay was developed by using
OPD-substrate (o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride). The reaction was
stopped with 3 mol/L sulfuric acid (50 µl/well) and the color
reaction measured at 490 nm (microplate EL 340, Bio-Tek Instruments).
The same ELISA technique and reagents were used for developing
immunoassays to measure the expressions of CINC, MIP-1
, and MCP-1.
All concentrations and amounts of antibody solutions for CINC
quantitation were used following the ELISA protocol described above.
For MIP-1
, 60 µl/well of 5 µg/ml antibody was used for coating,
and samples were diluted 1:2. The biotinylated secondary antibody was
used at a concentration of 25 µg/ml. For MCP-1 detection the
concentrations used were 10 µg/ml for coating antibody (100
µl/well) and 0.5 µg/ml for secondary antibody. For this ELISA, all
incubations were carried out at room temperature. Incubation times were
2 to 4 hours. All other procedures were performed as described above.
Chemotaxis Assay
Human neutrophils were isolated from citrate-treated human whole blood by a Ficoll-Paque (Pharmacia Biotech AB, Uppsala, Sweden) gradient. Following dextran sedimentation and hypotonic red blood cell lysis, cells were fluorescein-labeled with BCECF (2',7'-bis [2-carboxyethyl]-5-[and 6]-carboxy-fluorescein acetoxymethyl ester) (Molecular Probes, Inc., Eugene, OR). Labeled neutrophils were then loaded in 96-well minichambers (NeuroProbe, Inc., Cabin John, MD) on top of a polycarbonate membrane with a pore size of 3 µm to facilitate migration to a well of BAL fluid samples below the membrane and the chambers were incubated at 37°C for 30 minutes. The number of cells that migrated through the polycarbonate filter was measured with a cytofluorometer (Cytofluor II, PerSeptive Biosystems, Inc., Framingham, MA). For each measurement, samples were done in quadruplicate.
Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA)
Nuclear extracts of whole lung tissues were prepared by the method
of Deryckere and Gannon.22
Nuclear extracts of alveolar
macrophages were prepared as previously described.13
Protein concentrations were determined by bicinchoninic acid assay with
trichloroacetic acid precipitation using BSA as a reference standard
(Pierce). Double-stranded NF-
B consensus oligonucleotide (5'-AGT GAG
GGG ACT TTC CCA GGC-3', Promega, Madison, WI) was end-labeled with
[32P] ATP (3000 Ci/mmol at 10 mCi/ml,
Amersham, Arlington Heights, IL). Binding reactions containing equal
amounts of protein (10 µg) and 35 fmol (~50,000 cpm, Cherenkov
counting) of oligonucleotide were performed for 30 minutes in binding
buffer (4% glycerol, 1 mmol/L MgCl2, 0.5 mmol/L
EDTA (pH 8.0), 0.5 mmol/L dithiothreitol, 50 mmol/L NaCl, 10 mmol/L
Tris (pH 7.6), 50 mg/ml poly [dI-dC], Pharmacia, Piscataway, NJ).
Reaction volumes were held constant to 15 µl. Reaction products were
separated in a 4% polyacrylamide gel and analyzed by autoradiography.
Statistical Analysis
In groups with equal variances, data sets were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. Individual group means were then compared with the Tukey multiple comparison test. In groups containing unequal variances, Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance was performed followed by Dunnett's method for multiple comparison. All values were expressed as mean ± SE. Significance was assigned where P < 0.05.
| Results |
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To obtain dose-response relationships for chemokine generation,
1 x 106
rat alveolar macrophages were
incubated for 4 hours with IgG immune complexes (over a range of 1500
µg/ml) or with similar amounts of IgG anti-BSA (in the absence of
BSA). The CINC and MIP-2 responses are shown in Figure 1
. Macrophages with no additions
generated 44.8 ± 7.9 and 16.9 ± 1.3 ng/ml of CINC and
MIP-2, respectively. In the presence of 1500 µg anti-BSA (but
absence of BSA), CINC and MIP-2 responses never exceeded 350 and 25
ng/ml, respectively. In contrast, in the presence of IgG immune
complexes, the CINC and MIP-2 responses were dependent on the amounts
of immune complexes added. A dose response was found with immune
complexes at concentrations >10 µg/ml. A plateau in the response
occurred with immune complexes in the range of 125500 µg/ml. In all
subsequent experiments the in vitro concentrations of IgG
immune complexes used were 10 µg/ml.
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Alveolar macrophages (1 x 106) were
incubated with a fixed amount (10 µg/ml) of IgG immune complexes and
with increasing amounts of C5a or MAC to establish the doses of the
complement activation products to be used in subsequent experiments.
C5a was used over a dose range of 25150 ng/ml, whereas MAC was used
under conditions employing 2.510 µg/ml C5 for formation of MAC. In
the absence of C5a or MAC, baseline levels of CINC and MIP-2 in cells
stimulated with 10 µg IgG anti-BSA alone were 79 ± 2.7 and
16.3 ± 6.7 ng/ml, respectively (Figure 2)
. Stimulation of macrophages with 10
µg immune complexes/ml alone caused CINC and MIP-2 levels to rise to
1013 ± 32 and 62.4 ± 0.5 ng/ml, respectively. The
presence of 50 ng/ml C5a with IgG immune complexes resulted in a clear
increase in chemokine production (Figure 2A)
. There was a declining
response at higher concentrations of C5a, a finding similar to the
bell-shaped dose-response curve for C5a in neutrophil chemotaxis assays
which show a peak at approximately 10 nmol/L C5a.16
No concentration of C5a, in the absence of immune complexes, induced
significant CINC or MIP-2 generation above that found in nonstimulated
cells. For all subsequent in vitro experiments, C5a was used
at a dose of 50 ng/ml.
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Immune Complex-Induced Chemokine Production In Vitro in the Presence of C5a or MAC
Using the conditions established by the data in Figure 2
, rat
alveolar macrophages were incubated with medium alone ("untreated or
none") or with C5a (50 ng/ml) alone, with MAC (containing 10 µg/ml
C5) alone, with BSA (2 µg/ml) alone, with anti-BSA alone (IgG, 10
µg/ml), or with immune complexes (10 µg/ml) alone, or with immune
complexes in combination with C5a or MAC, or with incompletely
assembled MAC (MAC in absence of C7, MAC - C7) at the doses
described above. Chemokine responses in the culture supernatant fluids
were determined by ELISA. The results are shown in Figure 3
. For the C-X-C chemokines (MIP-2 and
CINC, frames A and B) and for the C-C chemokines (MCP-1 and MIP-1
,
frames C and D), very low levels of chemokines were found in
supernatant fluids from untreated macrophages or in supernatant fluids
from cells treated only with C5a, MAC, BSA, or anti-BSA. In all cases,
chemokine production by alveolar macrophages was significantly
increased after treatment with IgG immune complexes. Treatment with
MAC - C7 along with immune complexes caused showed no significant
differences when compared to addition of IgG immune complexes alone.
For the sake of simplicity, the results reported in Figure 3
represent
percent changes relative to macrophages stimulated with IgG immune
complexes alone (IC). In the presence of C5a or MAC, immune
complex-induced MIP-2 production increased by 46% and 80%,
respectively. In the case of CINC, the presence of C5a- or
MAC-augmented immune complex-induced production by 35% and 50%,
respectively. When MCP-1 was assessed, the presence of C5a or MAC
enhanced immune complex-induced production by 85% and 129%,
respectively. A similar pattern was observed for MIP-1
. The addition
of C5a or MAC increased immune complex-induced MIP-1
production by
21% and 40%, respectively. Thus, in all cases C5a or MAC present
together with IgG immune complexes caused synergistic production of
C-X-C (MIP-2 and CINC) and C-C (MCP-1 and MIP-1
) chemokines by
alveolar macrophages.
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In these experiments C5a or MAC was instilled into either
untreated rat lungs or rat lungs undergoing IgG immune complex
deposition as described above. The effects on intrapulmonary chemokine
levels in BAL fluids were then determined. The results, shown in Figure 4
, are presented as percentage changes
compared to results with immune complexes alone. Chemokine content in
BAL fluids were quantitated by ELISA 4 hours after initiation of lung
reactions. In all cases, chemokine levels in BAL fluids of lungs
receiving C5a or MAC alone were significantly lower than the levels
induced by the in vivo intrapulmonary deposition of IgG
immune complexes. Furthermore, the presence of MAC - C7 together
with IgG immune complexes did not yield chemokine levels that were
different from those induced by IgG immune complexes alone. However,
coadministration of C5a increased IgG immune complex-induced production
of MIP-2, CINC, MCP-1, and MIP-1
by 56%, 26%, 80%, and 49%,
respectively. Similarly, cotreatment with MAC enhanced IgG immune
complex-induced generation of MIP-2, CINC, MCP-1, and MIP-1
by 65%,
35%, 75%, and 49%, respectively. Thus, coadministration of C5a or
MAC with IgG immune complexes caused synergistic intrapulmonary
generation of chemokines.
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To determine whether the MAC preparation contained intrinsic
chemotactic activity for neutrophils (as compared to C5a) which might
account for in vivo effects, neutrophil responses to
increasing doses of C5a (0.250 ng/ml) or MAC (0.0410 µg/ml C5)
were compared. C5a demonstrated the expected chemotactic activity above
1 ng/ml, with a plateau at 50 ng/ml (Figure 5A)
, a finding that is consistent with
earlier reports.16
In the case of MAC, no significant
chemotactic activity could be detected over the entire dose range used
(Figure 5B)
. Therefore, the increased accumulation of neutrophils in
lungs containing IgG immune complexes together with MAC (as described
below) cannot be explained by neutrophil chemotactic activity of
exogenous MAC.
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To establish whether C5a could affect development of lung injury
(as defined by neutrophil accumulation and albumin leakage) caused by
intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune complexes, several different
doses of C5a were administered intratracheally with the anti-BSA. By
itself, airway instillation of 28 µg C5a failed to cause an
increase in the permeability index when compared to the negative
control group (Figure 6)
. When C5a was
administered intratracheally with IgG immune complex (IC) in a dose
range from 1.08.0 µg, the 2.0 µg dose of C5a significantly
increased the permeability index by 125%. At higher in vivo
doses of C5a these enhancing effects were lost, similar to the in
vitro effects of C5a at high concentrations as shown in Figure 2
.
In subsequent studies, we assessed the effects of C5a (2.0 µg) and
MAC (the latter in the presence or absence of C7, MAC versus
MAC - C7, respectively) on lung inflammatory responses triggered
by intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune complexes, using the
endpoints of lung vascular permeability and numbers of neutrophils in
BAL fluids. The coadministration of C5a or MAC with the immune
complexes caused 150% and 200% increases in the permeability index,
respectively (Figure 7A)
. The
coadministration of the incomplete MAC (MAC - C7) had no effect
on IgG immune complex-induced lung injury.
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In companion studies, MAC was fully assembled in vitro, forming soluble MAC (sMAC), which was then given intratracheally before airway instillation of anti-BSA. Under these conditions, the mean permeability index of the sMAC-treated group was 0.25 ± 0.02 was not different from rats that received only IgG immune complexes (permeability index 0.28 ± 0.03). Thus, as would be expected, sMAC, which has little ability to bind to cell surfaces, is not capable of enhancing lung injury after intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune complexes.
In Vivo Effects of C5a and MAC on BAL Fluid
Chemotactic Activity and TNF
To obtain additional information on the mechanisms involved in
enhanced neutrophil recruitment, total neutrophil chemotactic activity
in BAL fluids was assessed. Enhanced levels of chemotactic activity
were anticipated on the basis of the chemokine data described in Figure 4
. BAL fluids from untreated negative controls were devoid of
detectable neutrophil chemotactic activity. A barely measurable
increase in chemotactic activity was found in BAL fluids of animals 4
hours after receiving C5a or MAC alone. As expected, substantial
chemotactic activity for neutrophils was found in BAL fluids from rats
receiving intrapulmonary deposition of immune complexes.
Coadministration of C5a or MAC resulted in 62% and 84% increases in
chemotactic activity, respectively, when compared to BAL fluids from
rats receiving only IgG immune complexes. Chemotactic activity of BAL
fluids from rats treated with IgG immune complexes and inactive MAC
(MAC - C7) was not different from chemotactic activity in BAL
fluids from rats treated with IgG immune complexes alone. Increases in
chemotactic activity were not due to increased endogenous production of
C5a under the used conditions, because an ELISA specific for rat
C5a16
demonstrated no significant differences between the
various treatment groups. Rat C5a levels in BAL fluids from untreated
rats were 0.93 ± 0.92 ng/ml, rising to 4.75 ± 0.79 ng/ml
after IgG immune complex deposition. In the presence of either C5a or
MAC, IgG immune complex-induced lung injury resulted in levels of rat
C5a of 6.47 ± 1.03 ng/ml, and 6.34 ± 1.59 ng/ml,
respectively (for both, P > 0.05 when compared to the
levels of C5a in the absence of C5a or MAC). Thus, consistent with the
data in Figure 4
, increases in chemotactic activity appeared to be
associated with increased chemokine content in BAL fluids.
To further investigate the mechanisms of enhanced lung injury caused by
the presence of C5a or MAC, levels of TNF
were assessed in BAL
fluids. In contrast to chemokines, the presence of C5a or MAC caused no
differences in IgG immune complex-induced BAL TNF
levels. Whereas
TNF
in BAL fluids of negative control animals were below 0.25 ng/ml,
deposition of IgG immune complexes caused TNF
levels to rise nearly
12-fold to 3.1 ± 0.29 ng/ml. The presence of either C5a or MAC
with IgG immune complexes was associated with TNF
levels of
2.86 ± 0.24, and 3.16 ± 0.25 ng/ml, respectively. Thus, the
in vivo injury-enhancing effects of C5a or MAC appear to be
due to changes in BAL levels of chemokines rather than changes in
levels of TNF
or rat C5a.
Effects of C5a and MAC on NF-
B Activation
Because activation of the transcription factor NF-
B is known to
occur after intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune
complexes,23
we evaluated the effects of C5a and MAC on
NF-
B activation in alveolar macrophages and lung nuclear extracts.
As shown in Figure 9
(upper frame), alveolar macrophages treated
in vitro with either C5a or MAC alone exhibited no
consistent activation of NF-
B when compared to negative control
groups of untreated macrophages. Treatment with IgG immune complexes
caused nuclear translocation of NF-
B. Coadministration of C5a or MAC
had no effect on the activation of NF-
B. Similar results were found
in vivo in lung nuclear extracts (Figure 9
, lower frame).
C5a or MAC alone had little effect on NF-
B activation in whole
lungs. The deposition of IgG immune complexes resulted in marked
activation of NF-
B. However, coadministration of C5a or MAC had no
effect on this level of activation. These data are consistent with
earlier studies in which IgG immune complex-induced NF-
B activation
in rat lung occurs in the face of complement depletion.23
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| Discussion |
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16
and because injury in the same model has been
shown to require chemokines,17,18
the extent to which
complement components may be involved in chemokine generation is
uncertain. In vitro studies showed that C5a and MAC
synergistically enhanced C-X-C and C-C chemokine production in alveolar
macrophages stimulated with IgG immune complexes. Importantly, neither
C5a nor MAC alone induced macrophage production of chemokines. Similar
findings were obtained in vivo in the IgG immune complex
model of lung inflammatory injury. Our experiments appear to represent the first successful in vivo assembly of exogenously administered MAC components leading to enhanced chemokine expression and lung injury. This has been made possible by the ability to administer late-acting complement components repeatedly into the airways of rats. We chose to assemble MAC using oxidized C5, which results in an altered form of C5 with the properties of C5b.19 This altered molecule is not cleaved, has the functional activity of C5b, and interacts with C6 to form the C5, C6 complex, which is then reactive with C7, C8, and C9. At sufficient concentrations of C79, this MAC preparation demonstrates properties of a cytolytic complex. This strategy avoids complications related to the generation of C3a or C5a when C3 and C5 convertases are assembled using purified complement components. For the in vivo assembly of MAC, it was crucial to administer components of MAC in a fashion that would allow the assembly of the complex (starting with C5 and C6, followed by addition of C7, C8, and C9) on cell surfaces to avoid formation of the soluble but biologically inactive MAC. The cell-lysing ability of MAC is based on the ring-like structure formed on cell membranes.21 The extent of cytolysis induced by MAC has been linked to the number of C9 molecules present. As many as 16 C9 molecules have been described as being arranged in individual ring lesions on cell membranes,24 with at least four C9 molecules being necessary per C5b-8 complex to form a lytic lesion through which small and large intracellular molecules can pass to the exterior of the cell.25 In functional immunochemical assays, three to four C9 molecules on average have been shown to be present in the C5b-9 complex on complement-lysed erythrocytes.26 Nucleated cells often show a resistance to lysis by complement, largely dependent on their metabolic state at any given moment as well as on the surface expression of complement inhibitors such as decay-accelerating factor. In our studies, two C9 molecules were offered per C5b-8 complex, thereby minimizing any cytolytic activity of MAC. Pre-assembled soluble C5b-9 complexes (sMAC) are not inserted into cell membranes and are known to be functionally inert.21 Assembled MAC lacking any one of the individual five complement components is inactive in cell lysis and in proinflammatory effects.27 The C5b-8 complex has some lytic activity, but this is minimal when compared to the C5b-9 complex. The requirement for all subunits of the MAC is also reflected in our results. Administration of MAC lacking C7 (MAC - C7) along with IgG immune complexes failed to show the phlogistic effects associated with the fully assembled MAC. Furthermore, intrapulmonary instillation of in vitro preassembled sMAC failed to induce the intensification of immune complex-induced lung injury. Thus, functional enhancement of the inflammatory response in the in vivo lung model suggests that complete assembly of the terminal complement complex on membranes of intrapulmonary cells has occurred.
In addition to lung macrophages, alveolar epithelial Type II cells have also been described as expressing cytokines and inducible nitric oxide synthase.28-30 Intrapulmonary assembly of MAC may occur on Type II cells as well as on lung macrophages. It appears that C5a receptors are more widespread in lung than previously assumed, in light of recent studies suggesting the presence of C5a receptors on bronchial and alveolar epithelial cells31,32 in addition to the well-known C5a receptor expression on myeloid cells. Our in vitro studies clearly show that C5a and MAC enhance chemokine production in alveolar macrophages stimulated with IgG immune complexes. Whether the in vivo chemokine responses are limited to effects on macrophages or also involve other lung cells remains to be determined. It is known that bronchial epithelial cells express C5a receptors and react to this ligand with generation of IL-8.32 This might account for small but limited increases in MIP-2 and CINC levels in animals stimulated with C5a in the absence of immune complexes, because alveolar macrophages did not respond to C5a stimulation in the absence of other agonists with increased chemokine production. Because of the known distribution of Fc receptors on myeloid cells and because of the known requirement for FcR in IgG immune complex-induced tissue injury,33 it seems likely that the lung inflammatory responses noted require both C5a receptors and FcR.
The rather narrow dose range within which C5a produced enhanced
chemokine generation by immune complex-stimulated alveolar macrophages
(Figure 2A)
is similar to the C5a dose response for neutrophil
chemotaxis,34,16
endothelial cell production of
superoxide,35
and endothelial cell expression of
P-selectin.10
The loss of function observed at high doses
of C5a may reflect cell activation, which results in a refractory cell
response. In contrast, with increasing doses of MAC no such decline in
macrophage response was found (Figure 2B)
. This is probably explained
by the fact that C5a interacts with the G-protein-associated,
seven-membrane-spanning C5aR, whereas MAC is inserted directly into the
cell membrane in the absence of any known receptor. Thus, it would
appear that there is no measurable limit of the extent to which MAC may
induce cell activation, at least under the experimental conditions
used.
Intratracheal instillation of human C5a or
C5adesArg has been shown to be ineffective in
producing lung injury in rabbits; the induction of injury requires an
additional stimulus.36
In the current studies, C5a or MAC
by themselves were unable to cause neutrophil recruitment and
lung injury. We found that when C5a or MAC was administered
intratracheally with IgG immune complexes, BAL fluids contained
significantly greater neutrophil chemotactic activity compared to
treatment with IgG immune complexes alone (Figure 8)
. We subsequently showed that this
enhanced chemotactic activity was associated with augmented lung
production of the neutrophil-attracting C-X-C chemokines MIP-2 and CINC
(Figure 4)
. The fact that enhanced BAL levels of MIP-2 and CINC
occurred without changes in BAL levels of TNF
or C5a suggest that
increased neutrophil influx is directly related to synergistic
production of MIP-2 and CINC.
|
B has been shown to be upregulated within 30 minutes after the
onset of injury, with peak of expression at 4 hours.37
MIP-2 and CINC expression in this same lung model has a very similar
time course, peaking between 2 and 4 hours.17
For CINC
induction, direct regulation through NF-
B has been
demonstrated.38
NF-
B participation as an inducible
transcriptional activator has been linked not only to the early
response cytokines TNF
and IL-139,40
but also to IL-8
(or the rat homologs, MIP-2 and CINC), perhaps also extending to MCP-1
and MIP-1
.13,41-43
For these reasons we sought to
determine if synergistic increases of chemokine production in
vitro and in vivo would be reflected by measurable
increases in NF-
B activation. The presence of C5a or MAC did not
significantly enhance IgG immune complex-induced NF-
B activation in
macrophages in lung nuclear extracts. The slight increase of NF-
B
activation in whole lungs from animals treated with intratracheally
instilled MAC (Figure 9)
B up-regulation in
endothelial cells.13
It is possible that the experimental
conditions used did not permit detection of subtle changes in NF-
B
activation. We have previously shown that C5a alone does not activate
NF
B in lung,44
which the current study confirmed. In
our current study we were also unable to obtain convincing evidence
that MAC, alone or in conjunction with IgG immune complexes, causes
augmented NF-
B activation in lung. In summary, alveolar macrophages stimulated in vitro with IgG immune complexes in the presence of C5a or MAC demonstrate synergistic production of C-X-C and C-C chemokines. Synergistic enhancement of lung injury also occurs in vivo when C5a or MAC is present together with IgG immune complexes, accompanied by enhanced increases in CINC and MIP-2 levels in the lung. These changes are associated with increased neutrophil recruitment into lungs and intensified lung injury. These findings imply an important function of complement activation products in amplification of an inflammatory process via enhanced generation of C-X-C and C-C chemokines.
| Footnotes |
|---|
Supported by National Institutes of Health grants GM-29507 and HL-31963.
Accepted for publication February 5, 1999.
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