Mycobacterial cell wall is a hallmark of Mycobacterium genus, constituted of bioactive lipids and glycoconjugates: phosphatidylinositol mannoside (PIMs), lipomannan (LM) and lipoarabinomannan (LAM). The chronic infection inside lung macrophages is related with cholesterol accumulation into host cells as an alternative source of carbon and energy to maintain the bacilli with its physiological functions. To understand the activity of these immunomodulatory glycoconjugates during adaptation under the unusual environment inside the host infected cells, the present work propose to investigate the possible modulation of LM/LAM biosynthesis in Mycobacterium smegmatis (saprophytic) after culture in minimal medium (MM), supplemented with glycerol and/or cholesterol. Our results showed that saprophytic bacilli are able to accumulate the cholesterol and change the bacterial physiology due to slow growth and restrict cell density. Furthermore, the cholesterol consumption decreased the accumulation of PIMs and promoted morphological changes and bacterial aggregates, even maintaining the cell wall with its specific physic-chemistry characteristic (alcohol-acid resistance). The most impressive change after cholesterol consumption was the LAM biosynthesis, which showed distinct electrophoresis migration, compatible to high molecular weight of LAM from non-saprophytic bacilli (from 25 – 30 KDa to 30 – 50 KDa). These results showed that cholesterol consumption, when utilized as principal alternative of carbon and energy source, is able to induce physiological changes in mycobacteria, mainly in LAM biosynthesis, one of the most immunoregulatory molecules of cell wall. Ours data suggest that similar changes in mycobacteria may occur inside the granuloma, and that changes may help the evolution of tuberculosis to chronic and multibacillary form, hallmarked by immunodeficient aspect against the bacilli.
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