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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2001, p. 1240-1247, Vol. 8, No. 6
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Program in Infectious Diseases1 and
University of Washington Department of
Medicine,2 Seattle, Washington
Received 13 April 2001/Returned for modification 17 July
2001/Accepted 13 September 2001
Detailed investigations of macrophage phagocytosis and killing of
Aspergillus fumigatus conidia have been limited by
technical difficulties in quantifying fungal uptake and viability. In
order to study early events in cell pathogen ingestion and killing, we
developed a new flow cytometry assay that utilizes the fungus-specific viability dye FUN-1. Metabolically active A. fumigatus
conidia accumulate orange fluorescence in vacuoles, while dormant or
dead conidia stain green. After incubation within THP-1 cells,
recovered conidia are costained with propidium iodide (PI) to
discriminate between dormant and dead cells. Flow cytometric
measurements of FUN-1 metabolism and PI uptake provide indicators of
conidial viability, dormancy, and death. Conidial phagocytosis and
killing are also assessed by measurement of green and orange FUN-1
fluorescence within the THP-1 cell population. Compared to previously
described methods, this assay has less error introduced by membrane
permeability changes and serial dilution of filamentous fungal forms.
Results suggest that the THP-1 cells kill conidia rapidly (within 6 h) after exposure. Conidia that are preexposed to human serum are ingested
and killed more quickly than are nonopsonized conidia.
1071-412X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.8.6.1240-1247.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Early Events in Macrophage Killing of
Aspergillus fumigatus Conidia: New Flow Cytometric
Viability Assay
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., D3-100, Seattle,
WA 98109. Phone: (206) 667-6702. Fax: (206) 667-4411. E-mail: Kmarr{at}fhcrc.org.
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