Invasion of Vero cells and induction of apoptosis in macrophages by pathogenic Leptospira interrogans are correlated with virulence.

Interactions of virulent Leptospira interrogans serovar icterohaemorrhagiae strain Verdun with Vero cells (African green monkey kidney fibroblasts) and a monocyte-macrophage-like cell line (J774A.1) were assayed by a double-fluorescence immunolabelling method. Infectivity profiles were investigated according to (i) the duration of contact between leptospires and eukaryotic cells and (ii) the number of in vitro passages after primary isolation from lethally infected guinea pigs. Comparative experiments were conducted with the corresponding high-passage avirulent variant and the saprophytic leptospire Leptospira biflexa Patoc I. In Vero cells, virulent leptospires were quickly internalized from 20 min postinfection, whereas avirulent and saprophytic strains remained extracellularly located. In addition, the virulent strain demonstrated an ability to actively invade the monocyte-macrophage-like J774A.1 cells during the early stages of contact and to induce programmed cell death, as shown by the detection of oligonucleosomes in a quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay. In both cellular systems, subsequent in vitro subcultures demonstrated a progressive decrease of the invasiveness, pointing out the necessity of using primocultures of Leptospira for virulence studies. Invasiveness of virulent leptospires was significantly inhibited with monodansylcadaverine, indicating that internalization was dependent on receptor-mediated endocytosis. Invasion of epithelial cells and induction of apoptosis in macrophages may be related to the pathogenicity of Leptospira, and both could contribute to its ability to survive in the host and to escape from the immune response.