Article Text
Abstract
Background: Enteric glia protect the integrity of the gut, as loss of enteric glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive (+) glia leads to a haemorrhagic jejunoileitis. Crohn’s disease (CD) and necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) show pathological changes in enteric glia. Therefore, factors controlling GFAP+ enteric glia are of great interest. The aim of the present study was to characterise enteric glia and determine the effect of interleukin 1β (IL-1β), interleukin 4 (IL-4), tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) on cultured enteric glia.
Methods: Dissected rat colon and cultured enteric glia cells were double labelled with anti-GFAP and anti-S-100 antibodies. For regulatory studies, enteric glia cells were treated with cytokines and LPS. Proliferation was assayed using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and mitosis of enteric glia was blocked by demecolcine.
Results: We were able to distinguish GFAP negative (−) from GFAP+ glia subtypes in situ and in primary cultures. Incubation of cells with IL-1β, TNF-α, and LPS led to a significant increase in GFAP+ enteric glia while IL-4 had no effect on GFAP expression. After incubation with IL-1β, total intracellular GFAP of enteric glia cells was increased. Upregulation of GFAP+ enteric glia could also be observed after stimulation with IL-1β on blocking mitosis. BrdU uptake in stimulated enteric glia showed no increased proliferation rate.
Conclusions: Two different types of enteric glia based on GFAP expression exist in the gut. Proinflammatory cytokines and LPS cause a dramatic increase in GFAP+ enteric glia. This suggests that cytokines play an important role in controlling GFAP+ enteric glia which might in turn be involved in modulating the integrity of the bowel during inflammation.
- enteric glia
- glial fibrillary acidic protein
- cytokines
- Crohn’s disease
- necrotising enterocolitis
- CD, Crohn’s disease
- ENS, enteric nervous system
- NEC, necrotising enterocolitis
- GFAP, glial fibrillary acidic protein
- CNS, central nervous system
- IL, interleukin
- LPS, lipopolysaccharides
- TNF, tumour necrosis factor
- MEM, minimal essential medium
- PBS, phosphate buffered saline
- BrdU, bromodeoxyuridine
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Footnotes
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↵* Present address: Department of Medical Cell Biology, Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
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