Macrophages play a critical role in Group A Streptococcus (GAS) recognition and the consequent activation of innate immunity and inflammatory responses against the pathogen. In parallel, GAS deploys several strategies for escaping detection and elimination by these efficient phagocytic cells. The events that take place in this GAS-macrophage battleground, the cellular consequences for the pathogen and for the immune cell, and the balance between the magnitude of infection and the efficiency of the host immune response can be investigated with a variety of assays presented in this chapter.
Keywords: Bacteria survival; Cell death; Colocalization; Cytokine release; Group A Streptococcus; Macrophages; Protein expression.