Mycoplasma gallisepticum Lipid Associated Membrane Proteins Up-regulate Inflammatory Genes in Chicken Tracheal Epithelial Cells via TLR-2 Ligation through an NF-κB Dependent Pathway

Mycoplasma gallisepticum-mediated respiratory inflammation in chickens is associated with accumulation of leukocytes in the tracheal submucosa. However the molecular mechanisms underpinning these changes have not been well described. We hypothesized that the initial inflammatory events are initiated upon ligation of mycoplasma lipid associated membrane proteins (LAMP) to TLRs expressed on chicken tracheal epithelial cells (TEC). To test this hypothesis, live bacteria or LAMPs isolated from a virulent (R(low)) or a non-virulent (R(high)) strain were incubated with primary TECs or chicken tracheae ex vivo. Microarray analysis identified up-regulation of several inflammatory and chemokine genes in TECs as early as 1.5 hours post-exposure. Kinetic analysis using RT-qPCR identified the peak of expression for most genes to be at either 1.5 or 6 hours. Ex-vivo exposure also showed up-regulation of inflammatory genes in epithelial cells by 1.5 hours. Among the commonly up-regulated genes were IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12p40, CCL-20, and NOS-2, all of which are important immune-modulators and/or chemo-attractants of leukocytes. While these inflammatory genes were up-regulated in all four treatment groups, R(low) exposed epithelial cells both in vitro and ex vivo showed the most dramatic up-regulation, inducing over 100 unique genes by 5-fold or more in TECs. Upon addition of a TLR-2 inhibitor, LAMP-mediated gene expression of IL-1β and CCL-20 was reduced by almost 5-fold while expression of IL-12p40, IL-6, IL-8 and NOS-2 mRNA was reduced by about 2–3 fold. Conversely, an NF-κB inhibitor abrogated the response entirely for all six genes. miRNA-146a, a negative regulator of TLR-2 signaling, was up-regulated in TECs in response to either R(low) or R(high) exposure. Taken together we conclude that LAMPs isolated from both R(high) and R(low) induced rapid, TLR-2 dependent but transient up-regulation of inflammatory genes in primary TECs through an NF-κB dependent pathway.