Schistosoma mansoni infection reprograms the metabolic potential of the myeloid lineage in a mouse model of metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Despite evidence that helminths protect from metabolic disease, a major gap exists in understanding the underlying mechanism(s). Here we demonstrate that bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM) from S. mansoni infected male ApoE-/- mice have dramatically increased mitochondrial respiration compared to those from uninfected mice. This change associates with increased glucose and palmitate shuttling into TCA cycle intermediates and decreased accumulation of cellular cholesterol esters. Moreover, systemic metabolic modulation by schistosomes is a function of biological sex, where infection protects ApoE-/- male, but not female, mice from obesity and glucose intolerance. Sex-dependence extends to myeloid cells, where reprogramming leads to opposite cholesterol phenotypes in BMDM from females and males. Finally, the metabolic reprogramming of male myeloid cells is transferrable via bone marrow transplantation to an uninfected host, indicating maintenance of reprogramming in the absence of sustained antigen exposure. This work reveals that S. mansoni systemic reprograming of myeloid metabolism is sex-dependent.