Candida albicans down-regulates CD4 expression and stimulates the production of the CCR5-ligand chemokines CCL3, CCL4, and CCL5 in macrophages.
Macrophages (5x105/0.5 ml) were cultured for 2 h in the absence or presence of CA using a macrophage: CA ratio of 1:10, unless otherwise stated. Cells were then washed and cultured for an additional period of 18 h. Then, the expression of CD4 and CCR5 was analyzed by flow cytometry or confocal miscroscopy (A) and the production of the chemokines CCL3, CCL4 and CCL5 was evaluated in cell supernatants by quantitative PCR (relativized to the expression of GAPDH mRNA) (B). In (A), graph bars show the relative mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD4 or CCR5. The MFI of untreated macrophages is assigned the value of 100. Results are expressed as the arithmetic means ± SEM of 4-5 experiments. Confocal images of a representative experiment (n=4) are also shown. Bars represent 10 µm. In (B), representative experiments are shown (n=4).
