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RESEARCH REPORT |
Department of Oral Sciences and Orthodontics, University of Otago, PO Box 647, Dunedin, New Zealand;
*corresponding author, richard.cannon{at}stonebow.otago.ac.nz
| ABSTRACT |
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KEY WORDS: saliva Candida albicans epithelial cell lines adherence IgA
| INTRODUCTION |
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All oral surfaces are coated with an acquired pellicle containing salivary components; therefore, it is important to investigate the contributions of salivary components to Candida adherence. Previous studies from this laboratory have shown that C. albicans adheres specifically to immobilized salivary basic proline-rich proteins (bPRPs) (O'Sullivan et al., 1997), and that saliva promotes the binding of C. albicans cells to immobilized streptococcal cells (Holmes et al., 1995; O'Sullivan et al., 2000). There are conflicting reports, however, regarding the influence of soluble salivary components on C. albicans adherence to oral surfaces, particularly the role of salivary IgA. Anti-IgA antibodies abolished an inhibitory effect of saliva on the binding of C. albicans to human epithelial cells (Umazume et al., 1995). In contrast, whole saliva was shown to promote the attachment of Candida yeast cells to hard surfaces (Edgerton et al., 1993; San Millán et al., 2000), and non-immune mammary IgA was shown to enhance adherence of yeast cells to exfoliated epithelial cells (Vudhichamnong et al., 1982). None of these studies addressed the question of whether specific anti-Candida IgA antibodies in saliva were affecting adherence to oral surfaces. Salivary IgA antibodies specific to C. albicans yeast cell surface components are readily detectable in human saliva, and titers can be elevated in asymptomatic carriers (Bikandi et al., 2000) as well as in patients diagnosed with oropharyngeal candidiasis (Coogan and Challacombe, 2000; Millon et al., 2001). In this study, we investigated the effect of whole saliva on the interaction between C. albicans yeast cells and cultured human epithelial cells and related the effect to the presence of specific anti-C. albicans IgA antibodies in the saliva.
| MATERIALS & METHODS |
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Epithelial Cell Lines and Culture Conditions
Human epithelial cell lines HEp-2 and A549 were obtained from the European Collection of Cell Cultures, Centre for Applied Microbiological Research, Salisbury, UK. Cultures were passaged and maintained in Eagle's MEM medium (Gibco BRL, Life Technologies, Rockville, MD, USA) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) (Gibco, BRL) at 37°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2. Confluent cells were prepared for subculture with trypsin-EDTA (Gibco, BRL). For adherence assays, trypsinized, washed cell suspensions (100 µL) were transferred to sterile 96-well flat-bottomed microtiter plates (Nalgene Nunc, Rochester, NY, USA) and cultured for 24 hrs (37°C, 5% CO2) until confluent. HET1-A cells were kindly provided by Dr. C.C. Harris, Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, NCI, NIH, USA, and grown and maintained in fibronectin-coated 20-mL tissue culture flasks with serum-free tissue culture medium (LHC 8, Biofluids, Rockville, MD, USA). For adherence assays, suspensions of HET1-A cells (100 µL) were transferred to sterile 96-well flat-bottomed microtiter plates, pre-coated with fibronectin (10 µg/mL), and cultured for 48 hrs (37°C, 5% CO2) until confluent.
Saliva Collection
Unstimulated saliva was collected on ice from six donors, and an equal volume from each donor was pooled. Saliva was collected after informed consent had been obtained and according to a protocol that had been reviewed and approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee. The saliva was clarified by centrifugation, and protein inhibitors were added as described by O'Sullivan et al. (2000).
Adherence Assays
C. albicans yeast cells were radiolabeled with [35S]methionine as described by Cannon et al. (1995b). Briefly, cell cultures (50 mL) were grown to mid-exponential phase in GSB medium before the addition of [35S]methionine (2 µL, 20 µCi) and incubation at 30°C for 2 hrs with shaking. The cells were harvested by centrifugation (3000 x g, 5 min, 4°C) and washed twice in 10 mL of KCl buffer (2 mmol/L KH2PO4; 2 mmol/L K2HPO4; 5 mmol/L KCl, 1 mmol/L CaCl2, pH 6.5). Cells were then re-suspended for use in adherence assays, at a concentration of 1.1 x 106/mL (or at concentrations described in the text), in an artificial saliva (AS) buffer constituted to mimic the ionic composition of saliva (1.75 mmol/L KH2PO4, 1.5 mmol/L CaCl2, 18.3 mmol/L KCl, 0.35 mmol/L NaSCN, 15 µmol/L NaF, 26 mmol/L NaHCO3, pH 6.5) and supplemented with glucose (1 g/L).
Radiolabeled C. albicans cells (50 µL) and saliva samples (50 µL, diluted in AS buffer to concentrations between 0 and 60%) were added to quadruplicate microtiter plate wells containing epithelial cell monolayers, and incubated at 37°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 for 1.5 hrs. The liquid in the wells was then aspirated and the monolayers washed three times with pre-warmed PBS. This wash procedure was shown in preliminary experiments to remove non-adherent yeast cells consistently, whereas further washes (up to three) did not remove bound yeast cells. Then the plates were air-dried at 37°C before the addition of 100 µL Optiphase scintillation fluid (Wallac Oy, Turku, Finland) and determination of radioactivity present in each well by means of a Wallac 1450 MicroBeta TriLux Scintillation counter (Wallac Oy).
In experiments to determine the effect of pre-treating tissue culture monolayers with saliva on subsequent adherence of radiolabeled C. albicans cells, we incubated quadruplicate microtiter plate wells of confluent tissue culture monolayers with pooled whole saliva (50 µL, diluted in AS buffer to concentrations between 0 and 60%) for 60 min before the aspiration of the saliva and the addition of radiolabeled C. albicans cells as above. Adherence was measured as described above.
In some experiments, C. albicans cells were pre-treated by incubation with saliva. Radiolabeled C. albicans cells at a concentration of 2.2 x 106/mL were incubated end-over-end with the saliva sample, diluted in AS buffer, at room temperature for 60 min. The cells were collected by centrifugation and washed twice with AS buffer before being re-suspended in AS buffer for use in adherence assays at the concentrations described in the text.
For experiments to examine the effect of pre-absorbing saliva with C. albicans yeast cells on its adherence-promoting activity, saliva samples were incubated end-over-end for 60 min at room temperature with non-radiolabeled C. albicans ATCC 10261 yeast cells (at concentrations described in the text), and then cells were removed by centrifugation.
Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)
To determine the specific immune reactivity of salivary IgA with C. albicans, we used a modification of a whole-cell ELISA technique (Holmes et al., 1996). Briefly, yeast cells (50 µL, 1 x 107/mL) were immobilized onto microtiter plates' wells (Immunosorp, Nalgene Nunc) by low-speed centrifugation. Non-specific protein binding sites were blocked by incubation with Tris-buffered saline (100 µL, TBS: 1 mmol/L Tris-HCl, 0.15 mol/L NaCl, pH 8.0) containing 0.5% (w/v) gelatin at 4°C for 16 hrs. The blocking solution was aspirated, and doubling dilutions (1:4 to 1:256) of whole saliva (50 µL, in TBS containing 0.05% gelatin) were added to duplicate wells and incubated at 37°C for 1 hr. Wells were washed three times with TBS containing 0.05% (v/v) Tween 20 (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA), and IgA binding was detected by incubation with peroxidase-conjugated rabbit immunoglobulins raised against human IgA (alpha chains) (Dako Corp., Carpenteria, CA, USA), diluted 1:1000 in TBS gelatin (50 µL) at 37°C for 1 hr. Plates were developed with o-phenylenediamine as substrate, and after the reaction was stopped with 1 mol/L H2SO4 (50 µL), the A492 was measured. Antibody reactivities were expressed either as titers based on the highest saliva dilution giving greater than twice the background, blocked well, absorbance value, or as mean relative absorbance values for a 1:16 dilution of saliva (expressed, to eliminate inter-plate variability, as a percentage of the A492 value for a constant control positive sample). Non-specific, total IgA content of saliva samples was also determined by ELISA. Clarified whole saliva samples, diluted between 1:100 and 1:6400 in coating buffer (15 mM Na2CO3, 35 mM NaHCO3, pH 9.6), were adsorbed to wells of microtiter plates (Immunosorp, Nalgene Nunc) at 4°C for 16 hrs. Non-specific protein binding sites were blocked with TBS gelatin, and bound total IgA was detected as described above. Total IgA titers were expressed as the highest saliva dilution giving greater than twice the background absorbance value.
In some experiments, saliva samples were treated with immobilized jacalin (Pierce, Rockford, IL, USA) for the depletion of IgA content. Saliva samples (0.5 mL, whole saliva, clarified as described above) were added to 0.5 mL of washed jacalin-agarose slurry in binding buffer (PBS as per manufacturer's instructions) and mixed end-over-end at 4°C for 1 hr. The agarose beads were removed by centrifugation and the saliva samples assayed for adherence-promoting activity and specific anti-C. albicans IgA as described above.
Statistical Analysis
We used the one-tailed t test to assess the significance of differences between means in adherence assays. We used linear correlation and regression analysis to determine the relationship between specific anti-C. albicans IgA titers and adherence, applying a t test to determine the significance of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, r.
| RESULTS |
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Significant (P < 0.05) saliva-mediated promotion of adherence was also observed when radiolabeled cells of 7 other C. albicans strains, including 5 clinical isolates, were tested in assays with each of the cell lines. The observed promotion of adherence ranged between 14.3% and 133% of adherence values obtained in the absence of saliva.
Pre-treatment of C. albicans Cells with Whole Saliva Promotes Adherence to Cultured Epithelial Cells
To determine whether the adherence-promoting effect of whole saliva was due to the binding of saliva components to receptors on the C. albicans cells or on the epithelial cells, we pre-incubated each with saliva before including them in separate adherence assays. C. albicans yeast cells that were pre-incubated with saliva and washed before use in the adherence assays showed greater adherence than yeast cells pre-incubated with buffer only (Fig. 2
), which showed adherence levels similar to those of yeast cells assayed in the absence of saliva (Fig. 1
). The increase in adherence was positively related to the concentration of saliva used to pre-treat the C. albicans yeast cells. In contrast, pre-treatment of each epithelial monolayer with various concentrations of saliva before use in adherence assays did not change C. albicans adherence by more than 10% relative to binding in the absence of saliva (results not shown).
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| DISCUSSION |
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C. albicans adhered to monolayers of all three epithelial cell lines, in the absence of saliva. There was significantly higher adherence to the HET-1A cell line. Use of these cells presents conditions more approximating those in vivo, since added serum is not required for growth of the cells, and the cells retain normal expression of surface proteins such as cytokeratins (Stoner et al., 1991).
The addition of whole saliva pooled from six donors significantly enhanced the binding of C. albicans yeast cells to epithelial cell monolayers of all three cell lines. The promotion of C. albicans adherence to the HET-1A cell line was less marked than to the other two cell lines, due to higher baseline adhesion, but a significant (P < 0.05) increase was still observed for saliva concentrations of 40% or 60% added to the assay. Pre-treatment of yeast cells with saliva increased adherence potential to all cell lines, and the adherence-promoting activity of saliva was depleted by incubation with a yeast cell suspension. Thus, the adherence-promoting activity of whole saliva apparently resulted from the attachment of saliva components to the yeast cells. Conversely, pre-treating the tissue culture monolayers with saliva did not significantly alter adherence. The components of saliva that promote adherence have not been identified, but the presence of specific IgA against C. albicans antagonized the adherence-promoting effects of such components.
We conclude that factors in whole saliva other than C. albicans-specific IgA promote the adherence of C. albicans yeast cells to cultured epithelial cells, and that the saliva-mediated enhancement of adherence is reduced in the presence of specific salivary IgA against C. albicans. This observation may explain why individuals can remain colonized with C. albicans despite high levels of salivary IgA. The results also demonstrated that the saliva-promoted adherence of C. albicans yeast cells to epithelial cells resulted from the binding of saliva to receptors on the yeast cells rather than to human epithelial cell receptors.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Received February 21, 2001; Last revision November 24, 2001; Accepted November 28, 2001
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