Toll-like receptor mRNA expression is selectively increased in the colonic mucosa of two animal models relevant to irritable bowel syndrome

摘要

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is largely viewed as a stress-related disorder caused by aberrant brain-gut–udimmune communication and altered gastrointestinal (GI) homeostasis. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that stressudmodulates innate immune responses; however, very little is known on the immunological effects of stress on the GI tract.udToll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical pattern recognition molecules of the innate immune system. Activation of TLRs byudbacterial and viral molecules leads to activation of NF-kB and an increase in inflammatory cytokine expression. It was ourudhypothesis that innate immune receptor expression may be changed in the gastrointestinal tract of animals with stressinducedudIBS-like symptoms.udMethodology/Principal Findings: In this study, our objective was to evaluate the TLR expression profile in the colonicudmucosa of two rat strains that display colonic visceral hypersensivity; the stress-sensitive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat and theudmaternally separated (MS) rat. Quantitative PCR of TLR2-10 mRNA in both the proximal and distal colonic mucosae wasudcarried out in adulthood. Significant increases are seen in the mRNA levels of TLR3, 4 & 5 in both the distal and proximaludcolonic mucosa of MS rats compared with controls. No significant differences were noted for TLR 2, 7, 9 & 10 while TLR 6udcould not be detected in any samples in both rat strains. The WKY strain have increased levels of mRNA expression of TLR3,ud4, 5, 7, 8, 9 & 10 in both the distal and proximal colonic mucosa compared to the control Sprague-Dawley strain. Noudsignificant differences in expression were found for TLR2 while as before TLR6 could not be detected in all samples in bothudstrains.udConclusions: These data suggest that both early life stress (MS) and a genetic predisposition (WKY) to stress affect theudexpression of key sentinels of the innate immune system which may have direct relevance for the molecularudpathophysiology of IBS.