The emerging role of ASC in dendritic cell metabolism during Chlamydia infection.

Chlamydia trachomatis is a bacterial agent that causes sexually transmitted infections worldwide. The regulatory functions of dendritic cells (DCs) play a major role in protective immunity against Chlamydia infections. Here, we investigated the role of ASC in DCs metabolism and the regulation of DCs activation and function during Chlamydia infection.

The immunoregulatory role of alpha enolase in dendritic cell function during Chlamydia infection.

Background: We have previously reported that interleukin-10 (IL-10) deficient dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen presenting cells that induced elevated protective immunity against Chlamydia. To further investigate the molecular and biochemical mechanism underlying the superior immunostimulatory property of IL-10 deficient DCs we performed proteomic analysis on protein profiles from Chlamydia-pulsed wild-type (WT) and IL-10 DCs to identify differentially expressed proteins with immunomodulatory properties.

Results: The results showed that alpha enolase (ENO1), a metabolic enzyme involved in the last step of glycolysis was significantly upregulated in Chlamydia-pulsed IL-10 DCs compared to WT DCs.