Transcriptomic profiling of lung alveolar macrophages reveals distinct contribution of sterol metabolism in macrophage response to Cryptococcus gattii infection

Alveolar macrophages are key first responders to pulmonary cryptococcosis, but there is still limited knowledge on the dynamic molecular changes during Cryptococcus gattii infection. We therefore analyzed the transcriptional profiles of alveolar macrophages isolated from mice infected intranasally with C. gattii and compared those infected with C. neoformans or treated with PBS at 7 days postinfection, using RNA sequencing. In C. gattii-infected mice, alveolar macrophages displayed the alteration of gene expression linked to sterol biosynthesis, while macrophages from C. neoformans-infected mice were primarily associated with interferon and cytokine signaling pathways. Thus, our research revealed the distinct patterns in the alveolar macrophage response to C. gattii infection. To investigate the transcriptional characteristics of alveolar macrophages isolated from mice intranasally infected with C. gattii R265 using RNA sequencing analysis. A pairwise comparison of DEGs was carried out, which included (1) AMs of the PBS-treated mice (submitted to GEO previously as GSM6597668) compared with those of the C. gattii R265-infected mice at 7 days after infection and (2) AMs of the C. neoformans H99-infected mice (submitted to GEO previously as GSM6597669) compared with those of the C. gattii R265-infected mice at 7 days after infection. *************************************************************** The table below lists GEO accessions reused/reanalyzed for this study. ***************************************************************