Transcriptome profiles of macrophages upon infection by isogenic phenotypic variants of Mycobacterium abscessus. Transcriptome profiles of macrophages upon infection by isogenic phenotypic variants of Mycobacterium abscessus

Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) infection can be a deadly infection in patients with chronic lung disease like cystic fibrosis. In vitro and in vivo, Mab may adopt a smooth (S) or rough (R) morphotype, the latter with fewer cell wall glycopeptidolipids. Although there are studies of the host response against constitutive Mab-S and Mab-R, we report the first analysis of early transcriptional events and responses in mouse bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDMs) upon infection with our media-selected, isogenic, interchangeable Mab-S and Mab-R. The early transcriptional events after infection with both the morphotypes showed considerable overlap of the pro-inflammatory genes that were differentially regulated compared to the uninfected macrophages. However, we also observed some signature genes which were upregulated during Mab-S compared to Mab-R infections. Media selected Mab-S and Mab-R behave in a similar fashion to constitutive S and R types with respect to pathogenesis and immune response and will likely be a better model of in vivo infection than multiply passaged, mutated organisms. Overall design: We performed gene expression profiling analysis using data obtained from RNA-seq of mouse BMDMs infected for 2hrs with Mab-S and Mab-R and compared with uninfected BMDMs samples (Mab-S infected samples, Mab-R infected samples and uninfected BMDMs sample).