Saturday, March 19, 2016

PGE2-IL-22 axis prevents gut microbiota leakage during systemic inflammation


This is very neatly done study. In the initial experiments, the authors showed that pre-treatment of mice with indomethacin (which suppresses PGE2 production) increased their susceptibility to systemic inflammation following endotoxin (LPS) injection.


Interestingly, when mice were also pre-treated with EP4 agonist (PGE2 receptor), it reduced systemic inflammation following LPS injection


Moreover, beneficial effect of EP4 agonist on systemic inflammation following LPS injection was mimicked by antibiotic pre-treatment, suggesting the role of gut barrier in protection mediated by PGE2.



Indeed, EP4 agonist pre-treatment prevented bacterial translocation from gut into sterile internal tissues such as liver.


Finally, the authors showed that PGE2-EP4 signaling in group 3 innate lymphoid cells was necessary for IL-22 production that contributed to maintaining gut barrier function during systemic inflammation (of note, EP4 agonist had (a) no effect in IL-22KO mice and it was still active in (b) RAG KO mice that lack adaptive immune system).



In summary, this study provided additional support for innate cell-derived IL-22 as a cytokine necessary for keeping gut tissue in healthy condition.   

David Usharauli

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