Discussion and Conclusions Ceramides, including ceramide-1-PO4, are important mediators of a number of normal cellular signaling pathways such as cell growth, proliferation (including ABT-263 mw oncogenesis), apoptosis and inflammation via altered

cytokine signaling [24]. While a number of bacteria express PLDs, there are only a few species expressing sphingomyelinases D, which specifically cleave SM to ceramide-1-PO4 in host cell membranes. Given the central role of PLDs in normal host cell physiology, it is easy to see how the dysregulated release of ceramides from www.selleckchem.com/products/jph203.html SM by bacterial PLDs could potentially lead to pleomorphic effects on the host cell [24], and how these effects could benefit the infection process. We report the first molecular characterization of the PLD (sphingomyelinase D) from A. haemolyticum and show that the action of this enzyme has implications in the pathogenesis of disease caused by this organism. In a manner analogous to host PLDs [38], A. haemolyticum PLD was able to stimulate reorganization of lipid rafts in epithelial cell plasma membranes in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 2C). This PLD-mediated lipid raft reorganization could be inhibited by anti-PLD antibodies, as well as by cholesterol sequestration (Figure 2D). Recently, bacterially-induced

lipid raft reorganization has been implicated in promoting efficient bacterial invasion rather than adhesion [39–42]. Selleck BIRB 796 However, we observed that lipid raft rearrangement, mediated by PLD, directly promoted attachment to host cells, as an A. haemolyticum pld mutant had a 60.3% reduced adhesion as compared to the wild type (Figure

3A). It is unlikely that PLD, a secreted enzyme, acts directly as an adhesin. Furthermore, the hypothesis that PLD exposes a cryptic receptor, as seen with arcanobacterial neuraminidases [43], was also discarded as cholesterol sequestration by MβCD, which inhibits lipid raft rearrangement, also significantly reduces adhesion of A. haemolyticum to host cells (Figure 3A). A more likely explanation is that PLD-mediated lipid raft reorganization leads to unless protein clustering and increased local receptor concentrations [20], which in turn leads to enhanced bacterial adhesion. The nature of the host receptor and the adhesin on the bacterial cell is unknown, but the A. haemolyticum genome encodes at least one extracellular matrix binding (MSCRAMM) protein (B.H. Jost and S.J. Billington, unpublished data), which are known bacterial adhesins [44]. Expression of PLD by A. haemolyticum appears to negatively affect the ability of this organism to invade host cells, as the pld mutant has a more than 2-fold increased ability to invade HeLa cells as compared to the wild type (Figure 3B). We hypothesized that rather than directly affecting invasion, invasion of host cells with A. haemolyticum strains expressing PLD had detrimental effects, such as loss of host cell viability.