Establishment of an In vitro System to Study Intracellular Behavior of Candida glabrata in Human THP-1 Macrophages

Summary

The current article outlines a protocol to establish an in vitro cell culture model system to study the interaction of a facultative intracellular human fungal pathogen Candida glabrata with human macrophages which will be a useful tool to advance our knowledge of fungal virulence mechanisms.

Abstract

A cell culture model system, if a close mimic of host environmental conditions, can serve as an inexpensive, reproducible and easily manipulatable alternative to animal model systems for the study of a specific step of microbial pathogen infection. A human monocytic cell line THP-1 which, upon phorbol ester treatment, is differentiated into macrophages, has previously been used to study virulence strategies of many intracellular pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, we discuss a protocol to enact an in vitro cell culture model system using THP-1 macrophages to delineate the interaction of an opportunistic human yeast pathogen Candida glabrata with host phagocytic cells. This model system is simple, fast, amenable to high-throughput mutant screens, and requires no sophisticated equipment. A typical THP-1 macrophage infection experiment takes approximately 24 hr with an additional 24-48 hr to allow recovered intracellular yeast to grow on rich medium for colony forming unit-based viability analysis. Like other in vitro model systems, a possible limitation of this approach is difficulty in extrapolating the results obtained to a highly complex immune cell circuitry existing in the human host. However, despite this, the current protocol is very useful to elucidate the strategies that a fungal pathogen may employ to evade/counteract antimicrobial response and survive, adapt, and proliferate in the nutrient-poor environment of host immune cells.

Introduction

Candida species are the leading cause of life-threatening invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised patients¹. Candida glabrata, an emerging nosocomial pathogen, is the second or third most frequently isolated Candida species from Intensive Care Unit patients depending upon the geographical location^1-3. Phylogenetically, C. glabrata, a haploid budding yeast, is more closely related to the non pathogenic model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae than to pathogenic Candida spp. including C. albicans⁴. Consistent with this, C. glabrata lacks some key fungal virulence traits including ....

Protocol

It is recommended to perform C. glabrata infection experiments in a laboratory with biosafety containment level 2 (BSL-2).

1. Preparation of THP-1 macrophage monolayer.
2. Preparation of C. glabrata cell suspension.
3. Infection of THP-1 macrophages with C. glabrata cells.
4. Measurement of phagocytosis rate and intracellular replication via colony forming unit assay.
5. Monitoring of intracellular replication using confocal laser scanning microscopy.

1. Preparation of THP-1 Macrophage Monolayer

1. THP-1 is a human monocytic cell line derived from the peripher....

Results

Infection analyses of PMA-treated THP-1 macrophages with C. glabrata wild type (wt) cells revealed that wt cells were phagocytosed by macrophages at a rate of 55-65% after 2 hr coincubation. Further, C. glabrata cells were able to resist killing by THP-1 macrophages and underwent a moderate 5- to 7-fold increase in CFUs after 24 hr of coculturing with THP-1 macrophages⁸.  Intracellular replication of wild type cells, transformed with GFP-expressing plasmid, in THP-1 macropha.......

Discussion

Innate immune system plays an important role in the control of opportunistic fungal infections. Macrophages contribute to antifungal defense by ingestion and destruction of the fungal pathogen. Thus, elucidation of factors that are required for survival and/or counteracting the antimicrobial functions of macrophages will advance our understanding of fungal virulence strategies. In this context, we have established an in vitro cell culture model system using macrophages derived from a human monocytic cell line TH.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
THP-1	American Type Culture Collection	TIB 202	Human acute monocytic leukemia cell line
RPMI-1640	Hyclone	SH30096.01	For maintaining THP-1 cells
Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate	Sigma-Aldrich	P 8139	Caution: Hazardous
YPD	BD-Difco	242710	For growing Candida glabrata cells
Formaldehyde	Sigma-Aldrich	F8775	For fixation of C. glabrata-infected THP-1 macrophages
Phosphate buffered saline (PBS)			Buffer (137 mM NaCl, 10 mM Phosphate, 2.7 mM KCl,  pH 7.4) for washes
Saline-sodium citrate (SSC)			Buffer (3 M NaCl, 0.3 M sodium citrate for 20x concentration) for washes
Prehybridization buffer			Buffer (50% formamide, 5x Denhardt’s solution, 5x SSC, 1% SDS) for hybridization
VECTASHIELD mounting medium	Vector Labs	H-1200	For mounting slides for confocal microscopy
32P-labeled α-dCTP	JONAKI-BARC	LCP-102	For radiolabeling of signature tags
100 mm tissue culture dishes	Corning	430167	To culture THP-1 cells
24-well tissue culture plate	Corning	3527	To perform C. glabrata infection studies in THP-1 macrophages
4-chamber tissue culture-treated glass slide	BD Falcon	REF354104	To image C. glabrata-infected THP-1 macrophages
Hemocytometer	Rohem India		For enumeration of cells
Table top microcentrifuge	Beckman Coulter	Microfuge 18	For spinning down cells in microtubes
Table top centrifuge	Remi	R-8C	For spinning down cells in 15 ml tubes
Spectrophotometer	Amersham Biosciences	Ultraspec 10	To monitor absorbance of yeast cells
Plate incubator	Labtech	Refrigerated	To grow C. glabrata cells
Shaker incubator	New Brunswick	Innova 43	To grow C. glabrata cells
Water jacketed CO2  incubator	Thermo Electron Corporation	Forma series 2	To culture THP-1 cells
Confocal microscope	Carl Ziess	Ziess LSM 510 meta	To observe C. glabrata-infected THP-1 macrophages
Compound microscope	Olympus	CKX 41	To observe C. glabrata and THP-1 macrophages
PCR machine	BioRad	DNA Engine	To amplify unique tags from input and output genomic DNA
Hybridization oven	Labnet	Problot 12S	For hybridization
PhosphorImager	Fujifilm	FLA-9000	For scanning hybridized membranes
Thermomixer	Eppendorf	Thermomixer Comfort	For denaturation of radiolabeled signature tags
Gel documentation unit	Alphainnontech	Alphaimager	To visualize ethidium bromide-stained DNA in agarose gels