Abstract

Lipid droplet (LD) formation occurs during infection of macrophages with numerous intracellular pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is believed that M. tuberculosis and other bacteria specifically provoke LD formation as a pathogenic strategy in order to create a depot of host lipids for use as a carbon source to fuel intracellular growth. Here we show that LD formation is not a bacterially driven process during M. tuberculosis infection, but rather occurs as a result of immune activation of macrophages as part of a host defense mechanism. We show that an IFN-γ driven, HIF-1α dependent signaling pathway, previously implicated in host defense, redistributes macrophage lipids into LDs. Furthermore, we show that M. tuberculosis is able to acquire host lipids in the absence of LDs, but not in the presence of IFN-γ induced LDs. This result uncouples macrophage LD formation from bacterial acquisition of host lipids. In addition, we show that IFN-γ driven LD formation supports the production of host protective eicosanoids including PGE2 and LXB4. Finally, we demonstrate that HIF-1α and its target gene Hig2 are required for the majority of LD formation in the lungs of mice infected with M. tuberculosis, thus demonstrating that immune activation provides the primary stimulus for LD formation in vivo. Taken together our data demonstrate that macrophage LD formation is a host-driven component of the adaptive immune response to M. tuberculosis, and suggest that macrophage LDs are not an important source of nutrients for M. tuberculosis.

Highlights

  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a global scourge, causing more than one million deaths annually [1]

  • It has been proposed that lipid droplets, organelles that store neutral lipids and are observed in macrophages during M. tuberculosis infection, are an accessible nutrient source for M. tuberculosis

  • We present data uncoupling bacterial acquisition of host lipids from the presence of Lipid droplet (LD) in macrophages

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Summary

Introduction

Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a global scourge, causing more than one million deaths annually [1]. One of the clinical hallmarks of infection is the formation of granuloma structures in the lungs of infected patients [3,4]. Within these granulomas, where M. tuberculosis is able to persist, there are often “foamy” macrophages, which contain a large accumulation of lipid droplets (LDs) [3]. Pathways required for utilization of lipids or cholesterol as sole carbon sources are essential for M. tuberculosis growth and virulence in in vivo mouse models of infection [8,9,10]

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