Listeria monocytogenes infection increases neutrophil adhesion and damage to a murine hepatocyte cell line in vitro.

Several studies have reported that Listeria monocytogenes multiples within hepatocytes and that inflammatory neutrophils inhibit this intracellular growth in vivo. In the present study, we used a murine embryonic hepatocyte cell line (ATCC TIB73) as an in vitro model to investigate neutrophil-hepatocyte interactions. Murine peritoneal exudate neutrophils adhered more readily to L. monocytogenes-infected hepatocyte monolayers than to uninfected monolayers or monolayers infected with actA- and hly- mutants of L. monocytogenes. L. monocytogenes-infected TIB73 cells increased their surface expression of ICAM-1 as compared with uninfected TIB73 cells. Neutrophil adherence and oxidative stress to TIB73 cells were reduced by pre-incubating the hepatocyte monolayers with anti-ICAM-1 monoclonal antibody and diminished further by pre-incubating the peritoneal exudate neutrophils with an anti-CR3 monoclonal antibody.