| Host Resistance to Intracellular Infection: Mutation of Natural Resistance-associated Macrophage Protein 1 (Nramp1) Impairs Phagosomal Acidification | |||||||||||||
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| The mechanisms underlying the survival of intracellular parasites such as mycobacteria in host macrophages remain poorly understood. In mice, mutations at the Nramp1 gene (for natural resistance-associated macrophage protein), cause susceptibility to mycobacterial infections. Nramp1 encodes an integral membrane protein that is recruited to the phagosome membrane in infected macrophages. In this study, we used microfluorescence ratio imaging of macrophages from wild-type and Nramp1 mutant mice to analyze the effect of loss of Nramp1 function on the properties of phagosomes containing inert particles or live mycobacteria. The pH of phagosomes containing live Mycobacterium bovis was significantly more acidic in Nramp1- expressing macrophages than in mutant cells (pH 5.5 ± 0.06 versus pH 6.6 ± 0.05, respectively; P | |||||||||||||
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