Essential role of the glucosyltransferase activity in Clostridium difficile toxin-induced secretion of TNF-α by macrophages

X Sun, X He, S Tzipori, R Gerhard, H Feng - Microbial pathogenesis, 2009 - Elsevier
Clostridium difficile causes serious and potentially fatal inflammatory diseases of the colon.
Two large protein toxins, TcdA and TcdB, have been clearly implicated in pathogenesis. The
goal of this study was to determine whether the glucosyltransferase activity of the toxins is
critical for the induction of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), an important cytokine mediating
both local and systematic inflammatory response. A dose-dependent TNF-α secretion was
demonstrated in murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 after exposure to TcdA or TcdB …