Effect of the transcription factor GATA-2 on phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages from Pneumocystis carinii-infected hosts

摘要

Alveolar macrophages from normal hosts are able to bind, phagocytose, and degrade P. carinii [6,10], but those from P. carinii-infected hosts are defective in phagocytosis of P. carinii organisms [4,5]. Recently, the expression of the transcription factor GATA-2 gene was found to be down-regulated during P. carinii infection in alveolar macrophages [8]. GATA-2 has been shown to play a crucial role in the development of hematopoietic cells [7,9] and regulation of a variety of genes [2,3]. In this study, we performed experiments to determine whether down-regulation of GATA-2 correlates with the defect in phagocytosis of alveolar macrophages from P. carinii-infected rats.