Listeria monocytogenes: Clinical and Experimental Update

Listeria monocytogenes, a small gram-positive bacillus, causes sepsis and meningitis in immunocompromised patients and a devastating maternal/fetal infection in pregnant women. Recent outbreaks demonstrated that L. monocytogenes can cause gastroenteritis in otherwise healthy individuals and more sev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 2002-02, Vol.185 (Supplement-1), p.S18-S24
Main Authors: Wing, Edward J., Gregory, Stephen H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antibacterial agents
Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents
Bacterial diseases
Biological and medical sciences
Disease outbreaks
Experimental bacterial diseases and models
Gastroenteritis - epidemiology
Gastroenteritis - immunology
Gastroenteritis - physiopathology
Hepatocytes
Humans
Immunity
Immunocompromised Host
Infections
Infectious diseases
Kupffer cells
Listeria monocytogenes
Listeria monocytogenes - immunology
Listeria monocytogenes - pathogenicity
Listeriosis - epidemiology
Listeriosis - immunology
Listeriosis - physiopathology
Liver
Macrophages
Medical sciences
Neutrophils
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
T lymphocytes
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Summary:Listeria monocytogenes, a small gram-positive bacillus, causes sepsis and meningitis in immunocompromised patients and a devastating maternal/fetal infection in pregnant women. Recent outbreaks demonstrated that L. monocytogenes can cause gastroenteritis in otherwise healthy individuals and more severe invasive disease in immunocompromised patients. Centralized processing in the food industry may be the cause of these large-scale listeriosis outbreaks. The mouse model of listeriosis, which was developed in the 1960s, has been extraordinarily useful for studying T cell—mediated immunity. Contrary to the original concept that macrophages are the principal effector cells in listeriosis, we found that immigrating neutrophils play the predominant role in early liver defenses. At later time points, CD8+ T cells lyse infected hepatocytes by both perforin- and Fas-L/Fas—dependent mechanisms. Of interest, nonclassical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class Ib—restricted cytolytic activity is expressed early during primary infection, whereas MHC class Ia—restricted activity is predominant through late primary and secondary infections.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1086/338465