Leishmania Promastigotes Enhance Neutrophil Recruitment through the Production of CXCL8 by Endothelial Cells

Endothelial cells represent one of the first cell types encountered by Leishmania promastigotes when inoculated into the skin of the human hosts by the bite of phlebotomine sand flies. However, little is known on their role in the early recruitment of phagocytic cells and in the establishment of the infection. Initially, neutrophils, rapidly recruited to the site of promastigotes deposition, phagocytize Leishmania promastigotes, which elude the killing mechanisms of the host cells, survive, and infect other phagocytic cells. Here, we show that Leishmania promastigotes co-incubated with HMEC-1, a microvascular endothelial cell line, exhibited significant morphological changes and loss of infectivity. Moreover, promastigotes of different Leishmania species stimulated the production of CXCL8 by HMEC-1 in a dose- and TLR4-dependent manner. Interestingly, we observed that the conditioned media from Leishmania-stimulated HMEC-1 cells attracted leukocytes, mostly neutrophils, after 2 h of incubation. After 24 h, a higher percentage of monocytes was detected in conditioned media of unstimulated HMEC-1 cells, whereas neutrophils still predominated in conditioned medium from Leishmania-stimulated cells. The same supernatants did not contain CCL5, a chemokine recruiting T cells and monocytes. On the contrary, inhibition of the production of CCL5 induced by TNF-alpha was seen. These data indicate that the interaction of Leishmania promastigotes with endothelial cells leads to the production of chemokines and the recruitment of neutrophils, which contribute to the establishment of Leishmania infection.