• 대한수의학회지
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• 제56권2호
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• pp.57-66
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• 2016

The gut epithelial barrier, which is composed of the mucosal layer and the intestinal epithelium, has multiple defense mechanisms and interconnected regulatory mechanisms against enteric microbial pathogens. However, many bacterial pathogens have highly evolved infectious stratagems that manipulate mucin production, epithelial cell-cell junctions, cell death, and cell turnover to promote their replication and pathogenicity in the gut epithelial barrier. In this review, we focus on current knowledge about how bacterial pathogens regulate mucin levels to circumvent the epithelial mucus barrier and target cell-cell junctions to invade deeper tissues and increase their colonization. We also describe how bacterial pathogens manipulate various modes of epithelial cell death to facilitate bacterial dissemination and virulence effects. Finally, we discuss recent investigating how bacterial pathogens regulate epithelial cell turnover and intestinal stem cell populations to modulate intestinal epithelium homeostasis.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.27-33
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• 2021

The gut is a complex organ that has played an important role in digestion, absorption, endocrine functions, and immunity. The gut mucosal barriers consist of the immunologic barrier and nonimmunologic barrier. During critical illnesses, the gut is susceptible to injury due to the induction of intestinal hyperpermeability. Gut hyperpermeability and barrier dysfunction may lead to systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Additionally, gut microbiota are altered during critical illnesses. The etiology of such microbiome alterations in critical illnesses is multifactorial. The interaction or systemic host defense modulation between distant organs and the gut microbiome is increasingly studied in disease research. No treatment modality exists to significantly enhance the gut epithelial integrity, permeability, or mucus layer in critically ill patients. However, multiple helpful approaches including clinical and preclinical strategies exist. Enteral nutrition is associated with an increased mucosal barrier in animal and human studies. The trophic effects of enteral nutrition might help to maintain the intestinal physiology, prevent atrophy of gut villi, reduce intestinal permeability, and protect against ischemia-reperfusion injury. The microbiome approach such as the use of probiotics, fecal microbial transplantation, and selective decontamination of the digestive tract has been suggested. However, its evidence does not have a high quality. To promote rapid hypertrophy of the small bowel, various factors have been reported, including the epidermal growth factor, membrane permeant inhibitor of myosin light chain kinase, mucus surrogate, pharmacologic vagus nerve agonist, immune-enhancing diet, and glucagon-like peptide-2 as preclinical strategies. However, the evidence remains unclear.

• BMB Reports
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• 제47권9호
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• pp.494-499
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• 2014

NADH:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is known to be involved in the regulation of energy synthesis and metabolism, and the functional studies of NQO1 have largely focused on metabolic disorders. Here, we show for the first time that compared to NQO1-WT mice, NQO1-KO mice exhibited a marked increase of permeability and spontaneous inflammation in the gut. In the DSS-induced colitis model, NQO1-KO mice showed more severe inflammatory responses than NQO1-WT mice. Interestingly, the transcript levels of claudin and occludin, the major tight junction molecules of gut epithelial cells, were significantly decreased in NQO1-KO mice. The colons of NQO1-KO mice also showed high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity, which are known to affect transcriptional regulation. Taken together, these novel findings indicate that NQO1 contributes to the barrier function of gut epithelial cells by regulating the transcription of tight junction molecules.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.117-122
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Curcumin, a major component of the Curcuma species, contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Although it was found to induce apoptosis in cancer cells, the functional role of curcumin as well as its molecular mechanism in anti-inflammatory response, particularly in intestinal cells, has been less investigated. The intestine epithelial barrier is the first barrier and the most important location for the substrate coming from the lumen of the gut. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We administered curcumin treatment in the human intestinal epithelial cell lines, T84 and Caco-2. We examined endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response by thapsigargin, qPCR of XBP1 and BiP, electrophysiology by wild-type cholera toxin in the cells. RESULTS: In this study, we showed that curcumin treatment reduces ER stress and thereby decreases inflammatory response in human intestinal epithelial cells. In addition, curcumin confers protection without damaging the membrane tight junction or actin skeleton change in intestine epithelial cells. Therefore, curcumin treatment protects the gut from bacterial invasion via reduction of ER stress and anti-inflammatory response in intestinal epithelial cells. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data demonstrate the important role of curcumin in protecting the intestine by modulating ER stress and inflammatory response post intoxication.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.175-183
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• 2021

The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway controls intestinal epithelial barrier permeability by regulating tight junctions (TJs) and epithelial cells damage. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and carbon monoxide (CO) protect the intestinal epithelial barrier function, but the molecular mechanism is not yet clarified. MAPK activation and barrier permeability were studied using monolayers of Caco-2 cells treated with tissue necrosis factor α (TNF-α) transfected with FUGW-HO-1 or pLKO.1-sh-HO-1 plasmid. Intestinal mucosal barrier permeability and MAPK activation were also investigated using carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) administration with CoPP (a HO-1 inducer), ZnPP (a HO-1 inhibitor), CO releasing molecule 2 (CORM-2), or inactived-CORM-2-treated wild-type mice and mice with HO-1 deficiency in intestinal epithelial cells. TNF-α increased epithelial TJ disruption and cleaved caspase-3 expression, induced ERK, p38, and JNK phosphorylation. In addition, HO-1 blocked TNF-α-induced increase in epithelial TJs disruption, cleaved caspase-3 expression, as well as ERK, p38, and JNK phosphorylation in an HO-1-dependent manner. CoPP and CORM-2 directly ameliorated intestinal mucosal injury, attenuated TJ disruption and cleaved caspase-3 expression, and inhibited epithelial ERK, p38, and JNK phosphorylation after chronic CCl4 injection. Conversely, ZnPP completely reversed these effects. Furthermore, mice with intestinal epithelial HO-1 deficient exhibited a robust increase in mucosal TJs disruption, cleaved caspase-3 expression, and MAPKs activation as compared to the control group mice. These data demonstrated that HO-1-dependent MAPK signaling inhibition preserves the intestinal mucosal barrier integrity by abrogating TJ dysregulation and epithelial cell damage. The differential targeting of gut HO-1-MAPK axis leads to improved intestinal disease therapy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.694-700
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• 2017

Clostridium difficile, which causes pseudomembranous colitis, releases toxin A and toxin B. These toxins are considered to be the main causative agents for the disease pathogenesis, and their expression is associated with a marked increase of apoptosis in mucosal epithelial cells. Colonic epithelial cells are believed to form a physical barrier between the lumen and the submucosa, and abnormally increased mucosal epithelial cell apoptosis is considered to be an initial step in gut inflammation responses. Therefore, one approach to treating pseudomembranous colitis would be to develop agents that block the mucosal epithelial cell apoptosis caused by toxin A, thus restoring barrier function and curing inflammatory responses in the gut. We recently isolated an antimicrobial peptide, Periplanetasin-2 (Peri-2, YPCKLNLKLGKVPFH) from the American cockroach, whose extracts have shown great potential for clinical use. Here, we assessed whether Peri-2 could inhibit the cell toxicity and inflammation caused by C. difficile toxin A. Indeed, in human colonocyte HT29 cells, Peri-2 inhibited the toxin A-induced decrease in cell proliferation and ameliorated the cell apoptosis induced by this toxin. Moreover, in the toxin A-induced mouse enteritis model, Peri-2 blocked the mucosal disruption and inflammatory response caused by toxin A. These results suggest that the American cockroach peptide Peri-2 could be a possible drug candidate for addressing the pseudomembranous colitis caused by C. difficile toxin A.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.531-536
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• 2016

본 연구는 최근 연구자 등이 보고한 NQO1 knockout (결핍) 생쥐의 점막기능 감소 및 장염유발 현상을 인간 대장상피세포에서 재확인하는 것이다. 이를 위해, 사람 대장상피세포주인 HT29 세포에 NQO1 억제제인 dicumarol을 처치한 다음 밀착연접 조절인자의 변화를 평가하였다. HT29 세포에 10 μM dicumarol을 처치하여 NQO1을 억제하면 인간 대장상피세포의 밀착연접이 유의하게 줄고 구성인자들(ZO1, occludin)의 단백질 양도 감소함을 확인하였다. 생쥐 대장 내강에 dicumarol (10 μM)을 직접 처치한 결과 점막 투과율이 현저하게 증가함도 확인하였다(장벽기능 감소). 이는 인간 대장상피세포의 밀착연접 형성과정이 NQO1에 의존적임을 보여준다. 그러나 dicumarol 처치는 ZO1과 occludin의 전사량을 억제하지 않았다. NOQ1 결핍 생쥐에서 ZO1과 occludin의 전사량이 크게 감소한다는 이전 보고를 감안하면, NQO1에 의한 밀착연접 단백질의 양적 조절 과정이 전사를 포함하는 다양한 경로와 연관되어 있음을 시사한다. 즉, NQO1에 의한 ZO1과 occludin 조절 과정에 프로테오좀 의존-단백질 변성과 같은 단백질 파괴 경로가 이용될 수 있다고 사료된다.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제28권9호
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• pp.1016-1021
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• 2018

C. difficile 톡신A에 의한 대장상피세포 자살과정은 위막성대장염(Pseudomembranous colitis)의 주요 원인으로 고려되고 있다. 톡신A는 활성산소 를 증가시켜 세포자살 신호를 유도한다. 또한 톡신A는 미세섬유나 미세소관과 같은 세포골격계 형성을 저해함으로써 자살을 유도한다고 알려져 있다. 하지만 톡신A가 야기하는 소화기 상피세포 자살경로는 아직 불분명하다. 본 연구에서는 소화관 상피세포의 성장과 분화 그리고 기능에 중요하다고 알려져 온 Wnt 신호경로에 대한 톡신A의 영향을 확인해보았다. 이를 위해 비암화-인간대장세포주(NCM460)에 톡신A를 처치하고 Wnt 신호 분자들의 변화를 추적하였다. 또한 톡신A를 주입한 생쥐의 회장 상피세포 속 Wnt 신호경로 변화도 평가하였다. 인간 대장상피세포에서 톡신A는 Wnt 경로의 핵심 신호분자인 ${\beta}$-catenin 단백질의 양을 빠르게 감소시켰다. 이 현상은 생쥐 회장 상피세포에서도 동일하게 확인되었다. 연구자 등은 톡신A가 $GSK3{\beta}$ 활성형 인산화(Thr390)를 증가시킴도 확인하였다. 이는 톡신A가 $GSK3{\beta}$의 활성을 높여서 ${\beta}$-catenin의 인산화시키고 이를 통해 단백질 분해 과정이 촉진되었음을 보여준다. 이 결과들을 종합하면, 톡신A에 의한 소화관 상피세포 자살과정이 상피세포의 성장과 자살을 조절하는 Wnt 신호경로 차단과 밀접하게 연관되어 있음을 보여준다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권8호
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• pp.1446-1451
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• 2016

Clostridium difficile toxin A causes acute gut inflammation in animals and humans. It is known to downregulate the tight junctions between colonic epithelial cells, allowing luminal contents to access body tissues and trigger acute immune responses. However, it is not yet known whether this loss of the barrier function is a critical factor in the progression of toxin A-induced pseudomembranous colitis. We previously showed that NADH:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) KO (knockout) mice spontaneously display weak gut inflammation and a marked loss of colonic epithelial tight junctions. Moreover, NQO1 KO mice exhibited highly increased inflammatory responses compared with NQO1 WT (wild-type) control mice when subjected to DSS-induced experimental colitis. Here, we tested whether toxin A could also trigger more severe inflammatory responses in NQO1 KO mice compared with NQO1 WT mice. Indeed, our results show that C. difficile toxin A-mediated enteritis is significantly enhanced in NQO1 KO mice compared with NQO1 WT mice. The levels of fluid secretion, villus disruption, and epithelial cell apoptosis were also higher in toxin A-treated NQO1 KO mice compared with WT mice. The previous and present results collectively show that NQO1 is involved in the formation of tight junctions in the small intestine, and that defects in NQO1 enhance C. difficile toxin A-induced acute inflammatory responses, presumably via the loss of epithelial cell tight junctions.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.163-170
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• 2020

Background: Gut microflora contributes to the nutritional metabolism of the host and to strengthen its immune system. However, if the intestinal barrier function of the living body is destroyed by radiation exposure, the intestinal bacteria harm the health of the host and cause sepsis. Therefore, this study aims to trace short-term radiation-induced changes in the mouse gut microflora-dominant bacterial genus, and analyze the degree of intestinal epithelial damage. Materials and Methods: Mice were irradiated with 0, 2, 4, 8 Gy X-rays, and the gut microflora and intestinal epithelial changes were analyzed 72 hours later. Five representative genera of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes were analyzed in fecal samples, and the intestine was pathologically analyzed by Hematoxylin-Eosin and Alcian blue staining. In addition, DNA fragmentation was evaluated by the TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Results and Discussion: The small intestine showed shortened villi and reduced number of goblet cells upon 8 Gy irradiation. The large intestine epithelium showed no significant morphological changes, but the number of goblet cells were reduced in a radiation dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the small intestinal epithelium of 8 Gy-irradiated mice showed significant DNA damaged, whereas the large intestine epithelium was damaged in a dose-dependent manner. Overall, the large intestine epithelium showed less recovery potential upon radiation exposure than the small intestinal epithelium. Analysis of the intestinal flora revealed fluctuations in lactic acid bacteria excretion after irradiation regardless of the morphological changes of intestinal epithelium. Altogether, it became clear that radiation exposure could cause an immediate change of their excretion. Conclusion: This study revealed changes in the intestinal epithelium and intestinal microbiota that may pave the way for the identification of novel biomarkers of radiation-induced gastrointestinal disorders and develop new therapeutic strategies to treat patients with acute radiation syndrome.