The zinc-reversible antimicrobial activity of neutrophil lysates and abscess fluid supernatants. J Infect Dis 1991 Jul;164(1):137-42
Date
07/01/1991Pubmed ID
2056200DOI
10.1093/infdis/164.1.137Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0026059423 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 125 CitationsAbstract
There is some evidence to suggest that microbial growth inhibition may occur in chronic abscesses. A substance perhaps responsible for this phenomenon is calprotectin, a neutrophil cytoplasmic protein that inhibits microbial growth and that belongs to a class of proteins often having specific binding sites for zinc. In the present study, the suppressive effects of either human or mouse neutrophil lysates on Candida albicans growth were found to be completely reversed by micromolar quantities of zinc but not by iron or other trace elements. Similarly, supernatants of exudates from experimental abscesses in mice or from clinical specimens of abscesses in humans markedly inhibited the proliferation of C. albicans, and this effect was also completely reversed by zinc. A protein complex characteristic of calprotectin was identified in the abscess fluids. Preparations of the neutrophil growth-inhibiting protein, containing predominantly calprotectin, were shown to have zinc-binding activity by a dialysis technique. These findings suggest that the major mechanism of C. albicans growth inhibition by abscess fluids is through competition for zinc by a cytoplasmic protein apparently released from dying neutrophils.
Author List
Sohnle PG, Collins-Lech C, Wiessner JHMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AbscessAnimals
Blotting, Western
Calcium-Binding Proteins
Candida albicans
Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
Humans
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Neutrophils
Zinc
