Description
Leishmania major infected human dendritic cells (DCs) exhibit a marked induction of IL-12 ultimately promoting a robust Th1-mediated response associated with parasite killing and protective immunity. In this study, we utilized Affymetrix Genechips to globally assess the host cell genes and pathways associated with L. major infection during early infection (2, 4, 8, and 24 hrs) in human myeloid-derived DCs. Bioinformatic analyses of the hybridized microarray chips identified 728 genes, represented by 848 unique probe sets, which, when compared to uninfected samples were observed to be significantly differentially expressed by one-way ANOVA. Altogether, the data provide a genome-wide perspective on the transcriptional influences Leishmania species exert within human DCs during early infection, and provides a platform for further investigations toward functionally characterizing candidate genes of importance to the IL-12 based immune response to infections.