Effects of Orally Ingested Arsenic on Respiratory Epithelial Permeability to Bacteria and Small Molecules in Mice.

BACKGROUND: Arsenic exposure via drinking water impacts millions of people worldwide. Although arsenic has been associated epidemiologically with increased lung infections, the identity of the lung cell types targeted by peroral arsenic and the associated immune mechanisms remain poorly defined. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine the impact of peroral arsenic on pulmonary antibacterial host defense. METHODS: Female C57BL/6 mice were administered drinking water with 0, 250 ppb, or 25 ppm sodium arsenite for 5 wk and then challenged intratracheally with Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, or lipopolysaccharide. Bacterial clearance and immune responses were profiled. RESULTS: Arsenic had no effect on bacterial clearance in the lung or on the intrapulmonary innate immune response to bacteria or lipopolysaccharide, as assessed by neutrophil recruitment to, and cytokine induction in, the airspace. Alveolar macrophage TNFα production was unaltered. By contrast, arsenic-exposed mice had significantly reduced plasma TNFα in response to systemic lipopolysaccharide challenge, together suggesting that the local airway innate immune response may be relatively preserved from arsenic intoxication. Despite intact intrapulmonary bacterial clearance during pneumonia, arsenic-exposed mice suffered dramatically increased bacterial dissemination to the bloodstream. Mechanistically, this was linked to increased respiratory epithelial permeability, as revealed by intratracheal FITC-dextran tracking, serum Club Cell protein 16 measurement, and other approaches. Consistent with barrier disruption at the alveolar level, arsenic-exposed mice had evidence for alveolar epithelial type 1 cell injury. CONCLUSIONS: Peroral arsenic has little effect on local airway immune responses to bacteria but compromises respiratory epithelial barrier integrity, increasing systemic translocation of inhaled pathogens and small molecules. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1878.

Intracellular survival of Staphylococcus aureus due to alteration of cellular activity in arsenic and lead intoxicated mature Swiss albino mice.

The role of heavy metals like arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) as environmental toxicants is established. However, the exact mechanism of their effect on immunocompetent cell activity is not well known. Staphylococcus aureus is a virulent pathogen that has the ability to cause a variety of potentially life-threatening infections. The objective of our study was to demonstrate in an experimental mouse model of bacteremic S. aureus infection, bacterial clearance from blood and spleen in arsenic, lead treated and control group of mice. Bacterial density was measured in blood and spleen after 0, 24, 48 and 72 h post-infection. Our findings show a significant increase in bacterial load in blood (P<0.025 for arsenic and P<0.01 for lead) and delayed bacterial clearance by spleen in both arsenic (P<0.05) and lead (P<0.025) treated groups as compared to control, thus highlighting an immuno-compromised state following heavy metal exposure. To further elucidate immunomodulatory effects of both arsenic and lead, cell function studies were performed on splenic macrophages (M(phi)) isolated from lead and arsenic treated as well as control group of mice. Our findings show a decrease in cell adhesion property (P<0.005) of splenic M(phi)s from 2.9925+/-0.053 in control to 1.395+/-0.106 in arsenic and 0.8835+/-0.0106 in lead treated mice at 60 min. Morphologic alteration of the splenic M(phi)s showed an increase (As: P<0.05, Pb: P<0.0005) in both arsenic (6.876+/-0.3287%) and lead (16.55+/-1.051%) treated mice to control (2.649+/-1.238%) which may be responsible for the formers' reduced functional status. The chemotactic index, a measure of chemotactic migration of the macrophages toward immune serum, was 16.43+/-1.007 in control cell and was reduced (P<0.0005) to 4.19+/-0.393 in arsenic and 2.92+/-0.649 in lead treated mice at 60 min. These altered cell functions could probably explain the intracellular survival of S. aureus but such a causal relationship awaits further detailed examination.