Filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) is an important adhesin of the whooping cough agent Bordetella pertussis and is contained in most acellular pertussis vaccines. Recently, FHA was proposed to exert an immunomodulatory activity through induction of tolerogenic IL-10 secretion from dendritic cells. We have re-evaluated the cytokine-inducing activity of FHA, placing specific emphasis on the role of the residual endotoxin contamination of FHA preparations. We show that endotoxin depletion did not affect the capacity of FHA to bind primary human monocyte-derived dendritic cells, while it abrogated the capacity of FHA to elicit TNF-α and IL-10 secretion and strongly reduced its capacity to trigger IL-6 production. The levels of cytokines induced by the different FHA preparations correlated with their residual contents of B. pertussis endotoxin. Moreover, FHA failed to trigger cytokine secretion in the presence of antibodies that block TLR2 and/or TLR4 signaling. The TLR2 signaling capacity appeared to be linked to the presence of endotoxin-associated components in FHA preparations and not to the FHA protein itself. These results show that the endotoxin-depleted FHA protein does not induce cytokine release from human dendritic cells.
