Mycobacterium tuberculosis up-regulates matrix metalloproteinase-1 secretion from human airway epithelial cells via a...

Pulmonary cavitation is vital to the persistence and spread of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb), but mechanisms underlying this lung destruction are poorly understood. Fibrillar type I collagen provides the lung's tensile strength, and only matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) can degrade it at neutral pH. We investigated MTb-infected lung tissue and found that airway epithelial cells adjacent to tuberculosis (Tb) granulomas expressed a high level of MMP-1 (interstitial collagenase). Conditioned media from MTb-infected monocytes (CoMTb) up-regulated epithelial cell MMP-1 promoter activity, gene expression, and secretion, whereas direct MTb infection did not. CoMTb concurrently suppressed tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease-1 (TIMP-1) secretion, further promoting matrix degradation, and in Tb patients very low TIMP-1 expression was detected. MMP-1 up-regulation required synergy between TNF-alpha and G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathways. CoMTb stimulated p38 MAPK phosphorylation, and this is the point of TNF-alpha synergy with G protein-coupled receptor activation. Furthermore, p38 phosphorylation was the switch up-regulating MMP-1 activity and decreasing TIMP-1 secretion. Activated p38 localized to MMP-1-secreting airway epithelial cells in Tb patients. These data reveal a monocyte-epithelial cell network whereby MTb may drive tissue destruction, and they demonstrate that p38 phosphorylation is a key regulatory point in the generation of a matrix-degrading phenotype.