Open Access

ARTICLE

Extracellular Mg concentration and Ca blockers modulate the initial steps of the response of Th2 lymphocytes in co-culture with macrophages and dendritic cells

Patrycja Libako¹, Julia Miller¹, Wojciech Nowacki¹, Sara Castiglioni², Jeanette A. Maier², Andrzej Mazur³

1 Department of Immunology, Pathophysiology and Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Science, C.K. Norwida 31, 50-375 Wroclaw, Poland
2 Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences L. Sacco, Università di Milano, Via GB Grassi, 74 Milano, Italy
3 Inra, UMR 1019, UNH, CRNH Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont Université, Unité de Nutrition Humaine, BP 10448, Clermont-Ferrand, France

* Corresponding Author: A. Mazur. Inra,

European Cytokine Network 2015, 26(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1684/ecn.2015.0361

Abstract

Magnesium is highly involved in the metabolic network such that even subtle disturbances in its homeostasis affect many cellular functions, including calcium homeostasis, signal transduction, energy metabolism, membrane stability and cell proliferation. Recently, magnesium level has been proposed to modulate the priming and activity of immune cells. We studied the behavior of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and T lymphocytes after altering the magnesium/calcium balance. We used two different populations of primary APCs, i.e. bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and bone marrow-derived macrophages, while D10.G4.1 cells served as a model of responding Th2 cells. Our principal findings are the following: (i) the extracellular magnesium concentration had no significant impact on endocytosis by bone marrow-derived APCs, (ii) high concentrations of extracellular magnesium, with or without calcium antagonists, significantly decreased IL-4 and IL-10 secretion by Th2 cells in a co-culture system of APCs and Th2 lymphocytes, (iii) proliferation of Th2 cells in co-culture systems was significantly inhibited by calcium antagonists independently from extracellular magnesium concentrations. Our results suggest that alterations of magnesium and calcium homeostasis impact on some crucial steps of the immune response.

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