Submitted April 11, 2006
Accepted May 9, 2006
Kinin receptor expression during Staphylococcus aureus
infection
Sara H. Bengtson, Stephen B Phagoo, Anna Norrby-Teglund, Lisa Pahlman, Matthias Morgelin, Bruce L. Zuraw, Fredrik L. M. Leeb-Lundberg, and Heiko Herwald*
Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Angeles Research Institute, Los Angeles, USA
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
University of California, San Diego, USA
* Corresponding author; email: heiko.herwald{at}med.lu.se.
An inappropriate host response to invading bacteria is a
critical parameter that often aggravates the outcome of
an infection. Staphylococcus aureus is a major human
Gram-positive pathogen that causes a wide array of
community- and hospital-acquired diseases ranging from
superficial skin infections to severe conditions such as
staphylococcal toxic shock. Here we find that S. aureus
induces inflammatory reactions by modulating the
expression and response of the B1 and B2 receptors,
respectively. This process is initiated by a chain of
events, involving staphylococcal-induced cytokine
release from monocytes, bacteria-triggered contact
activation, and conversion of bradykinin to its
metabolite desArg9bradykinin. The data of the present
study implicate an important and previously unknown role
for kinin receptor regulation in S. aureus infections.
