Expression of staphylococcal clumping factor A impedes macrophage phagocytosis

Clumping factor A (ClfA), a fibrinogen-binding protein linked to the Staphylococcus aureus cell wall, is an important virulence factor in infection models, e.g., of septic arthritis. However, the mechanism(s) by which ClfA contributes to the virulence of the bacterium is unknown. In the present study, the impact of ClfA expression on the phagocytosis of S. aureus by macrophages was investigated using clfA-positive and clfA-negative isogenic strains. Furthermore, the possible contribution of ClfA to the proinflammatory and immunostimulatory activity of S. aureus was studied. Our results indicate that ClfA expression significantly protects S. aureus against macrophage phagocytosis. This protection does not require the presence of intact fibrinogen, a ligand for ClfA. ClfA expression by S. aureus enhanced the proliferative response of spleen cells. On the other hand, a clfA mutant strain caused more release of proinflammatory mediators by macrophages than its clfA-positive parental strain. Both the protection against phagocytosis and the enhanced immunostimulatory activity provided by ClfA expression are likely to contribute to the in vivo virulence of S. aureus.