Lipocalin 2 deactivates macrophages and worsens pneumococcal pneumonia outcomes

Lipocalin 2 deactivates macrophages and worsens pneumococcal pneumonia outcomes.

Macrophages play a key role in responding to pathogens and initiate an inflammatory response to combat microbe multiplication. Deactivation of macrophages facilitates resolution of the inflammatory response. Deactivated macrophages are characterized by an immunosuppressive phenotype, but the lack of unique markers that can reliably identify these cells explains the poorly defined biological rol...

Lipocalin 2 is protective against E. coli pneumonia

BACKGROUND Lipocalin 2 is a bacteriostatic protein that binds the siderophore enterobactin, an iron-chelating molecule produced by Escherichia coli (E. coli) that is required for bacterial growth. Infection of the lungs by E. coli is rare despite a frequent exposure to this commensal bacterium. Lipocalin 2 is an effector molecule of the innate immune system and could therefore play a role in hi...

Preventing Pneumococcal Pneumonia.

Complement levels in pneumococcal pneumonia.

Levels of complement proteins and functional activity of the alternate complement pathway were assessed in 39 patients with pneumococcal pneumonia. Mean levels of C3 and properdin and the functional activity of the alternate pathway in acute sera were significantly (P less than 0.05) below normal, whereas levels of components of the early classical pathway were normal. Although levels of factor...

Molecular pathogenesis of pneumococcal pneumonia.

The past two decades have witnessed an explosion of data on the molecular pathogenesis of pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, one of the most important pathogens currently plaguing man. Identification and functional analysis of genes and their proteins, elucidation of mechanisms involved in adherence, colonization, inflammation, and invasion, and an understanding of interactions with ...