Macrophage elastase kills bacteria within
murine macrophages
A. McGarry Houghton, William O. Hartzell, Clinton S. Robbins,
F. Xavier Gomis-Ru¨th & Steven D. Shapiro
Journal: Nature 2009 July 460: 637-642
Adviser: Hsien-bin huang
Speaker: Yu-ling Shen
Date: 2009.10.16
Abstract:
An important innate immune defense method is the ingestion of extracellular
particulate material by macrophage. The activated macrophage can secrete
various cytotoxic proteins that eliminate a broad range of targets, including
virus-infected cells, tumor cells, and intracellular bacteria. The researchers
studied the macrophage-derived protein-macrophage elastase (known as matrix
metalloproteinase 12 or MMP12) that seems to be able to disrupt intracellular
and extracellular of bacteria by different mechanisms. The authors used
Mmp12-/- and WT mice that were challenged with gram-negative and
gram-positive bacteria. The results showed that a status of immune system of
Mmp12-/- mice was weakness than WT mice. The antimicrobial proterties of
MMP12 is interesting. The authors characterized the conformation of MMP12
to know a new antimicrobial peptide.
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