Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M J Tingler.
The polysaccharide capsule is a virulence factor in the opportunistic yeast pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. We describe a collection of strains which were isolated or constructed to exhibit defined capsular phenotypes. The collection includes strains with wild-type, acapsular and hypercapsular traits.
Iron is tightly controlled in mammalian tissues and regulates virulence factors in various pathogenic organisms. The influence of Fe availability upon production of cryptococcal capsular polysaccharide was studied. Polysaccharide, measured as cell-bound glucuronyl residues, increased more than threefold as available Fe in the culture medium was varied from repletion to tight sequestration and depletion in five incremental steps. Since physiologic CO2 concentration may serve as stimulus for cryptococcal polysaccharide synthesis, the combined effect of Fe availability and CO2 on encapsulation was studied. Addition of dissolved, loosely chelated Fe moderated the effect of CO2. Tight chelation of dissolved Fe potentiated the CO2 effect. Tissue from infected mice showed heavily encapsulated organisms, consistent with results with physiologic CO2 concentration and Fe deprivation. In conclusion, cryptococcal polysaccharide synthesis is increased by limitation of ferric iron availability to the cell and by dissolved CO2, and the two effects are additive.
The polysaccharide capsule is a characteristic virulence factor in the yeast-pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. Growth in hypertonic growth media results in yeast cells with visibly smaller capsules. We investigated this suppression quantitatively, using a chemical assay for cell-bound and dissolved capsular polysaccharide. Molar NaCl suppressed production of cell-bound polysaccharide by a factor of 2.5- to 5-fold. The possibility of salt-induced physico-chemical contraction of capsular gel was tested by dialysis of fixed cells from hypotonic medium against medium containing 1 M NaCl and against the original medium again, while capsular thickness, packed cell volume and cell-bound polysaccharide were followed. We detected a physical contraction of gel following dialysis against medium containing 1 M NaCl. Mutants which gave mucoid colonies on hypertonic agar were isolated. One of these gave twice as much polysaccharide as the wild type when cultivated in medium containing 1 M NaCl. The hypercapsular trait was passed through serial outcrosses to the wild type and segregated as a chromosomal gene. This mutant may represent a gene which regulates production of capsular polysaccharide.
Cell wall mannoprotein of nonpathogenic yeasts is surface exposed, since the cells are agglutinated by concanavalin A and antimannoprotein antibodies. However, nonencapsulated cells of Cryptococcus neoformans were agglutinated neither by concanavalin A nor by antimannoprotein antibodies. Immunogold electron microscopy located most mannoprotein in the inner cell wall. Chemical analysis of purified cell walls showed the lack of mannose, xylose, and galactose residues. These data indicate that cryptococcal mannoprotein recovered from the cultural supernatant is a nonstructural element of the cell wall.