Testosterone responsiveness of spleen and liver in female lymphotoxin β receptor-deficient mice resistant to blood-stage malaria

Disrupted signaling through lymphotoxin β receptor (LTβR) results in severe defects of the spleen and even loss of all other secondary lymphoid tissues, making mice susceptible to diverse infectious agents. Surprisingly, however, we find that female LTβR-deficient mice are even more resistant to blood stages of Plasmodium chabaudi malaria than wild-type C57BL/6 mice. Higher resistance of LTβR-deficient mice correlates with an earlier onset of reticulocytosis, and the period of anemia is shorter. After surviving fulminant parasitemias of about 35%, mice develop long-lasting protective immunity against homologous rechallenge, with both spleen and liver acting as anti-malaria effectors. Testosterone suppresses resistance, i.e. all mice succumb to infections during or shortly after peak parasitemia. At peak parasitemia, testosterone does not essentially affect cellularity and apoptosis in the spleen, but aggravates liver pathology in terms of increased cell swelling, numbers of apoptotic and binucleated cells and reduced serum alkaline phosphatase levels, and conversely, reduces inflammatory lymphocytic infiltrates in the liver. In the spleen, hybridization of cDNA arrays identified only a few testosterone-induced changes in gene expression, in particular upregulation of INFγ and IFN-regulated genes. By contrast, a much larger number of testosterone-affectable genes was observed in the liver, including genes involved in regulation of the extracellular matrix, in chemokine and cytokine signaling, and in cell cycle control. Collectively, our data suggest that testosterone dysregulates the inflammatory response in spleen and liver during their differentiation to anti-malaria effectors in malaria-resistant female LTβR-deficient mice, thus contributing to the testosterone-induced lethal outcome of malaria.