Analysis of the human endothelial cell response to pathogenic Leptospira interrogans vs. non-pathogenic Leptospira biflexa (HMEC data). Homo sapiens

The overall goal of these experiments was to determine how human endothelial cells respond to pathogenic Leptospira interrogans. Leptospira interrogans causes leptospirosis, the most widespread zoonotic infection in the world. A hallmark of leptospirosis is widespread endothelial damage, which in severe cases leads to hemorrhage. In these experiments, we infected two endothelial cell lines with pathogenic Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola strain Ca12-005, and as controls, with the non-pathogenic Leptospira biflexa serovar Patoc strain Pfra. As additional controls, uninfected cells were also included in the analyses. Overall design: The cell line used fhere was a microvascular endothelial line, HMEC (Ades et al, 1992. HMEC-1: establishment of an immortalized human microvascular endothelial cell line. J Invest Dermatol. 99:683-690); due to loss of the original analysis files, only raw data files are provided. Infection times were performed at a multiplicity of infection (# bacteria/endothelial cell) of 10 for either 1 hour or 3 hours, after which RNA was harvested and reverse transcribed. Labeled cDNAs were used to probe HEEBO arrays purchased from Microarrays Inc. (Nashville, TN). In each of three biological replicate experiments, for each time point, three comparisons were made. First, the L. interrogans-infected cells were compared to the L. biflexa-infected cells. Second, the L. Interrogans-infected cells were compared to the uninfected cells. Third, the L. biflexa-infected cells were compared to the uninfected cells. A second endothelial cell line,