Critical role of CXCL4 in the lung pathogenesis of influenza (H1N1) respiratory infection.

Annual epidemics and unexpected pandemics of influenza are threats to human health. Lung immune and inflammatory responses, such as those induced by respiratory infection influenza virus, determine the outcome of pulmonary pathogenesis. Platelet-derived chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 4 (CXCL4) has an immunoregulatory role in inflammatory diseases. Here we show that CXCL4 is associated with pulmonary influenza infection and has a critical role in protecting mice from fatal H1N1 virus respiratory infection. CXCL4 knockout resulted in diminished viral clearance from the lung and decreased lung inflammation during early infection but more severe lung pathology relative to wild-type mice during late infection. Additionally, CXCL4 deficiency decreased leukocyte accumulation in the infected lung with markedly decreased neutrophil infiltration into the lung during early infection and extensive leukocyte, especially lymphocyte accumulation at the late infection stage. Loss of CXCL4 did not affect the activation of adaptive immune T and B lymphocytes during the late stage of lung infection. Further study revealed that CXCL4 deficiency inhibited neutrophil recruitment to the infected mouse lung. Thus the above results identify CXCL4 as a vital immunoregulatory chemokine essential for protecting mice against influenza A virus infection, especially as it affects the development of lung injury and neutrophil mobilization to the inflamed lung.

p53-independent inhibition of nitric oxide generation by cancer preventive interventions in ex vivo mouse peritoneal macrophages.

We have previously reported that dietary interventions with purported anti-inflammatory activity delay spontaneous tumorigenesis in p53-deficient (p53-/-) mice. In the present study, 4 weeks of calorie restriction or the dietary administration of chemopreventive steroids dehydroepiandrosterone and 16alpha-fluoro-5-androsten-17-one significantly reduced the inducible generation of nitric oxide (NO) in ex vivo peritoneal macrophages from male p53 wild-type and p53-/- mice relative to the respective ad libitum-fed controls; expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase II (NOS2) protein was also markedly decreased compared with respective controls. These findings suggest that the p53-independent suppression of inducible NO production observed in this study may contribute to the anti-cancer effects of these preventive interventions in p53-/- mice.