The cost of publication in Journal of Biomedical Science is borne by the National Science Council, Taiwan.

Research

EEVD motif of heat shock cognate protein 70 contributes to bacterial uptake by trophoblast giant cells

Kenta Watanabe¹ , Masato Tachibana¹ , Suk Kim² and Masahisa Watarai¹

¹  Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8515, Japan

²  Department of Veterinary Public Health, Gyeongsang National University, Gyeongnam 660-701, Korea

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Biomedical Science 2009, 16:113doi:10.1186/1423-0127-16-113

Published:	15 December 2009

Abstract

Background

The uptake of abortion-inducing pathogens by trophoblast giant (TG) cells is a key event in infectious abortion. However, little is known about phagocytic functions of TG cells against the pathogens. Here we show that heat shock cognate protein 70 (Hsc70) contributes to bacterial uptake by TG cells and the EEVD motif of Hsc70 plays an important role in this.

Methods

Brucella abortus and Listeria monocytogenes were used as the bacterial antigen in this study. Recombinant proteins containing tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domains were constructed and confirmation of the binding capacity to Hsc70 was assessed by ELISA. The recombinant TPR proteins were used for investigation of the effect of TPR proteins on bacterial uptake by TG cells and on pregnancy in mice.

Results

The monoclonal antibody that inhibits bacterial uptake by TG cells reacted with the EEVD motif of Hsc70. Bacterial TPR proteins bound to the C-terminal of Hsc70 through its EEVD motif and this binding inhibited bacterial uptake by TG cells. Infectious abortion was also prevented by blocking the EEVD motif of Hsc70.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that surface located Hsc70 on TG cells mediates the uptake of pathogenic bacteria and proteins containing the TPR domain inhibit the function of Hsc70 by binding to its EEVD motif. These molecules may be useful in the development of methods for preventing infectious abortion.