| First Author | Ruas LP | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | PLoS One | Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | e4519 |
| PubMed ID | 19229338 | Mgi Jnum | J:146278 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3837116 | Doi | 10.1371/journal.pone.0004519 |
| Citation | Ruas LP, et al. (2009) Lack of galectin-3 drives response to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis toward a Th2-biased immunity. PLoS One 4(2):e4519 |
| abstractText | There is recent evidence that galectin-3 participates in immunity to infections, mostly by tuning cytokine production. We studied the balance of Th1/Th2 responses to P. brasiliensis experimental infection in the absence of galectin-3. The intermediate resistance to the fungal infection presented by C57BL/6 mice, associated with the development of a mixed type of immunity, was replaced with susceptibility to infection and a Th2-polarized immune response, in galectin-3-deficient (gal3(-/-)) mice. Such a response was associated with defective inflammatory and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions, high IL-4 and GATA-3 expression and low nitric oxide production in the organs of infected animals. Gal3(-/-) macrophages exhibited higher TLR2 transcript levels and IL-10 production compared to wild-type macrophages after stimulation with P. brasiliensis antigens. We hypothesize that, during an in vivo P. brasiliensis infection, galectin-3 exerts its tuning role on immunity by interfering with the generation of regulatory macrophages, thus hindering the consequent Th2-polarized type of response. |
