The pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF is essential for a protective immune response to some but not all strains of Leishmania major. TNF-deficient mice of a resistant genetic background succumbed rapidly to an infection with L. major BNI. Another member of the TNF superfamily, Fas ligand (FasL), has also been reported to be critical for the immune response to L. major. To test the relative importance of TNF versus FasL for the control of L. major BNI, we infected wildtype C57BL/6 (B6.WT), B6.TNF-/-, B6.gld and C57BL/6.gld x TNF-/- (B6.gld.TNF-/-) double-negative mice. Visceral, fatal disease was only observed in B6.TNF-/- mice, but not in B6 gld mice. The course of infection and the immune response of B6.gld.TNF -/- mice were similar to those of B6.TNF-/- mice. B6.gld.TNF-/- mice had a high tissue parasite burden and expressed prominent amounts of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the skin, the lymph nodes (LN) and the spleen as previously reported for B6.TNF-/- mice, whereas the tissue parasite load and the iNOS expression of B6.gld mice resembled that of B6.WT controls. Neither the TNF- nor the FasL-deficiency exerted a detectable intrinsic effect on the proliferation of T cells. Thus, TNF, but not FasL is essential for the control of L. major BNI. The discrepancy between these and other published data are most likely due to the use of different strains of the pathogen. © 2005 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Immunology
Research Field:	Immunology not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Clinical health
Objective Field:	Clinical health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Korner, H (Professor Heinrich Korner)
ID Code:	72503
Year Published:	2005
Web of Science® Times Cited:	13
Deposited By:	Research Division
Deposited On:	2011-08-29
Last Modified:	2011-08-29
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