Legionella pneumophila infection activates bystander cells differentially by bacterial and host cell vesicles

Extracellular vesicles from eukaryotic cells and outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) released from gram-negative bacteria have been described as mediators of pathogen-host interaction and intercellular communication. Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is a causative agent of severe pneumonia. The differential effect of bacterial and host cell vesicles in L. pneumophila infection is unknown so far. We infected THP-1-derived or primary human macrophages with L. pneumophila and isolated supernatant vesicles by differential centrifugation. We observed an increase of exosomes in the 100 k pellet by nanoparticle tracking analysis, electron microscopy, and protein markers. This fraction additionally contained Legionella LPS, indicating also the presence of OMVs. In contrast, vesicles in the 16 k pellet, representing microparticles, decreased during infection. The 100 k vesicle fraction activated uninfected primary human alveolar epithelial cells, A549 cells, and THP-1 cells. Epithelial cell activation was reduced by exosome depletion (anti-CD63, or GW4869), or blocking of IL-1β in the supernatant. In contrast, the response of THP-1 cells to vesicles was reduced by a TLR2-neutralizing antibody, UV-inactivation of bacteria, or – partially – RNase-treatment of vesicles. Taken together, we found that during L. pneumophila infection, neighbouring epithelial cells were predominantly activated by exosomes and cytokines, whereas myeloid cells were activated by bacterial OMVs.