The virtues of oxygenation: Low tissue oxygen adversely affects the killing of leishmania

Abstract

Hypoxia contributes to the persistence of infections through altered immune responses. Studies examining skin O2 changes at the site of a lesion are limited. The prevailing methods require the use of electrochemical O 2 sensors or radiolabeled electrodes that utilize O2 and may interfere with the precision at low O2 levels. In this issue, Mahnke et al. (2014) demonstrate, using a novel fluorescence-based imaging technology, that low oxygen tension (pO2) impairs NO-mediated anti-leishmanial immunity, leading to increased parasite burden. Replenishing tissue oxygen profoundly enhanced NO-mediated leishmanial killing, underscoring the need to accurately assess oxygenation in infected tissues as a novel strategy to challenge intracellular infection. The technology presented here may have clinical-translational potential in noninvasively assessing disease burden and response to treatment. © 2014 The Society for Investigative Dermatology.