Abstract
Obesity is associated with increased morbidity and mortality during bacterial pneumonia. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and PGE2 have been shown to be upregulated in patients who are obese. In this study, we investigated the role of obesity and PGE2 in bacterial pneumonia and how inhibition of PGE2 improves antibacterial functions of macrophages. C57BL/6J male and female mice were fed either a normal diet (ND) or high-fat diet (HFD) for 16 wk. After this time, animals were infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lung. In uninfected animals, alveolar macrophages were extracted for either RNA analysis or to be cultured ex vivo for functional analysis. HFD resulted in changes in immune cell numbers in both noninfected and infected animals. HFD animals had increased bacterial burden compared with ND animals; however, male HFD animals had higher bacterial burden compared with HFD females. Alveolar macrophages from HFD males had decreased ability to phagocytize and kill bacteria and were shown to have increased cyclooxygenase-2 and PGE2. Treating male, but not female, alveolar macrophages with PGE2 leads to increases in cAMP and decreased bacterial phagocytosis. Treatment with lumiracoxib-conjugated nanocarriers targeting alveolar macrophages improves bacterial phagocytosis and clearance in both ND and HFD male animals. Our study highlights that obesity leads to worse morbidity during bacterial pneumonia in male mice because of elevated PGE2. In addition, we uncover a sex difference in both obesity and infection, because females produce high basal PGE2 but because of a failure to signal via cAMP do not display impaired phagocytosis.