Abstract
Host–pathogen interactions are complex and dynamic processes that result in a variety of responses. The ability of the host to respond appropriately to the presence of a microbial agent defines the outcome of these interactions. Fungal infections are a problem of growing clinical importance and are responsible for serious health problems in multimorbid patients. Different model systems, including primary cells and cell lines derived from different tissues, are used to study several processes that contribute to the virulence of pathogenic fungi. In this chapter, we describe an in vitro assay to characterize the response of human oral keratinocytes (OKF6/TERT-2) to the presence of the human pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans. The dynamic cellular changes such as expression of differentiation markers can be monitored by epifluorescence deconvolution microscopy. Analyses of immunofluorescence data by linescan analysis and fluorescence intensity measurements are described to identify changes in protein expression levels. The use of this in vitro model system will also provide new information about host cell behavior and identify potential drug targets in the future.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Schulze, J., and Sonnenborn, U. (2009). Yeasts in the gut: from commensals to infectious agents. Dtsch Arztebl Intl106, 837–842.
Samaranayake, Y.H., and Samaranayake, L.P. (2001). Experimental oral candidiasis in animal models. Clin Microbiol Rev14, 398–429.
Naglik, J.R., Fidel, P.L. Jr, and Odds, F.C. (2008). Animal models of mucosal Candida infection. FEMS Microbiol Lett283, 129–139.
Dongari-Bagtzoglou, A., and Kashleva, H. (2006). Development of a novel three-dimensional in vitro model of oral Canidida infection. Microb Pathog40, 271–278.
Park, H., Liu, Y., Solis, N., Spotkov, J., Hamaker, J., Blankenship, J.R., Yeaman, M.R., Mitchell, A.P., Liu, H., and Filler, S.G. (2009). Transcriptional responses of Candida albicans to epithelial and endothelial cells. Eukaryot Cell8, 1498–1510.
Rollenhagen, C., Wöllert, T., Langford, G.M., and Sundstrom, P. (2009). Stimulation of cell motility and expression of late markers of differentiation in human oral keratinocytes by Candida albicans. Cell Microbiol11, 946–966.
Kartasova, T., van Muijen, G.N., van Pelt-Heerschap, H., and van de Putte, P. (1988). Novel protein in human epidermal keratinocytes: regulation of expression during differentiation. Mol Cell Biol8, 2204–2210.
Jetten, A.M., George, M.A., Smits, H.L., and Vollberg, T.M. (1989). Keratin 13 expression is linked to squamous differentiation in rabbit tracheal epithelial cells and down-regulated by retinoic acid. Exp Cell Res182, 622–634.
Dickson, M.A., Hahn, W.C., Ino, Y., Ronfard, V., Wu, J.Y., Weinberg, R.A., Louis, D.N., Li, F.P., and Rheinwald, J.G. (2000). Human keratinocytes that express hTERT and also bypass a p16 (INK4a)-enforced mechanism that limits life span become immortal yet retain normal growth and differentiation characteristics. Mol Cell Biol20, 1436–1447.
Postlethwait, P., and Sundstrom, P. (1995). Genetic organization and mRNA expression of enolase genes of Candida albicans. J Bacteriol177, 1772–1779.
Langford, G.M. (2001). Video-enhanced microscopy for analysis of cytoskeleton structure and function. Methods Mol Biol161, 31–43.
Wöllert, T., and Langford, G.M. (2009). High resolution multimode light microscopy of cell migration: long-term imaging and analysis. Methods Mol Biol586, 3–21.
Komarova, Y., Lansbergen, G., Galjart, N., Grosveld, F., Borisy, G.G., and Akhmanova, A. (2005). EB1 and EB3 control CLIP dissociation from the ends of growing microtubules. Mol Biol Cell16, 5334–5345.
Acknowledgments
We thank Mary C. Young for technical assistance. This work was supported by NSF grant MCB-0517303 (G.M.L.) and NIH grant DE011375 (P.S.). Paula Sundstrom is a Burroughs Wellcome Scholar in Molecular Pathogenic Mycology.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Wöllert, T., Rollenhagen, C., Langford, G.M., Sundstrom, P. (2012). Human Oral Keratinocytes: A Model System to Analyze Host–Pathogen Interactions. In: Brand, A., MacCallum, D. (eds) Host-Fungus Interactions. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 845. Humana, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-539-8_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-539-8_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-538-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-539-8
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols