1,721,015 research outputs found

    Recent developments in the immunology of inflammatory bowel disease

    No full text
    Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are caused by excessive immune reactivity in the gut wall. Analysis of the type of immune responses ongoing in diseased gut has revealed important features which suggest that these conditions are different. In Crohn's disease tissue there is considerable evidence for an ongoing T helper cell type 1 response, with excess interleukin-12, interferon-gamma and TNF-alpha. There is circumstantial evidence in patients that this response is directed against the normal bacterial flora and definitive evidence in mouse models that T cell responses to the flora cause gut disease. In ulcerative colitis, the role of tissue damaging T cell responses in the gut mucosa is much less clear and there is more evidence that the lesion is owing to antibody-mediated hypersensitivity. Although different types of immune reactions initiate tissue injury in both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the downstream events which actually damage the tissue are the same in each condition. Elevated cytokine concentrations in the mucosa lead to the production of excess matrix degrading enzymes by gut fibroblasts, loss of mucosal integrity and ulceration. The same process also leads to an increased production of epithelial growth factors such as KGF Keratinocyte Growth Factor by gut fibroblasts and produces the crypt cell hyperplasia characteristic of all gut inflammatory conditions

    A p55 TNF receptor immunoadhesin prevents T cell-mediated intestinal injury by inhibiting matrix metalloproteinase production

    No full text
    Anti-TNF-alpha Ab therapy has been shown to be of benefit in the treatment of active Crohn's disease, but the tissue-injuring processes in the gut mediated by TNF-alpha that might be inhibited by neutralizing Ab are unknown. In this work, we have used a p55 TNF receptor-human IgG fusion protein (TNFR-IgG) to prevent the severe mucosal injury that ensues when lamina propria T cells in explant cultures of human fetal small intestine are directly activated with the lectin PWM. Following T cell activation and associated with mucosal injury, there is a marked elevation of soluble TNF-alpha in organ culture supernatants and a large increase in TNF-alpha mRNA transcripts. The addition of TNFR-IgG at the onset of cultures greatly reduced PWM-induced tissue injury, without inhibiting the increase in TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma transcripts seen following T cell activation. Mucosal injury in this model is mediated by endogenously-produced matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). When TNFR-IgG was added to PWM-stimulated explants, there was a reduction in MMPs in the explant culture supernatants, especially stromelysin-1. Recombinant TNF-alpha and IL-1beta added directly to mucosal mesenchymal cell lines also caused an increase in MMP production, but only the former was inhibited by the TNFR-IgG. These results suggest that one of the ways in which TNF-alpha causes tissue injury in the gut is by stimulating mucosal mesenchymal cell to secrete matrix-degrading metalloproteinases. Neutralization of this activity should help maintain tissue integrity

    T cell receptor V beta expression in human intestine: regional variation in postnatal intestine and biased usage in fetal gut

    No full text
    A panel of T cell receptor V beta specific monoclonal antibodies was used to analyse V beta gene usage at different sites in human postnatal and fetal intestine. In normal small intestine, at a single site, different patients showed expansion of T cells expressing individual V beta s. Lamina propria and epithelial T cells from the same patient showed overlapping but not identical V beta dominance. V beta dominance was also shown in the T cells of the colonic lamina propria. Analysis of two separate regions of intestine from the same patient (5-100 cm apart) showed that T cells expressing a dominant V beta region were often present at both sites. In most patients, however, major biases in T cell V beta usage (two to 12-fold variation) were also apparent between the two sites. Analysis of V beta expression in human fetal intestine also showed considerable skewing, although the most common dominant V beta in postnatal intestine (V beta 22) was never predominant in fetal intestine. Patchy local variation in the expression of individual V beta s therefore occurs against a background of V beta dominance over large regions of the human gut. Furthermore the results from fetal gut show that factors other than luminal antigen control V beta expression in the gut

    Imbalance of stromelysin-1 and TIMP-1 in the mucosal lesions of children with inflammatory bowel disease

    No full text
    BACKGROUND Degradation of the extracellular matrix and ulceration of the mucosa are major features of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). One of the most important enzymes in degrading the matrix and produced in excess by cytokine activated stromal cells, is stromelysin-1. The activity of stromelysin-1 is controlled by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP-1), its natural inhibitor. In model systems excess stromelysin-1 produces mucosal degradation.METHODS Quantitative competitive RT-PCR was used to analyse stromelysin-1 and TIMP-1 transcripts; western blotting was used to measure the amount of stromelysin-1 and TIMP-1 protein in biopsy samples from children with IBD.RESULTS In biopsies from patients with active Crohn's disease (n=24), ulcerative colitis (n=23), and controls (n=16), TIMP-1 transcripts and protein were abundant and unchanged. Stromelysin-1 transcripts and protein were markedly elevated in mucosal biopsies obtained from inflamed sites of patients with active IBD but were not elevated in adjacent endoscopically normal mucosa (n=10). Elevated levels of stromelysin-1 transcripts in active Crohn's disease (n=5) returned to normal levels following treatment with enteral nutrition.CONCLUSIONS Stromelysin-1 is markedly overexpressed at inflamed sites in patients with IBD whereas TIMP-1 remains unaltered. Excess stromelysin-1 is likely to be responsible for loss of mucosal integrity in IBD

    A major role for matrix metalloproteinases in T cell injury in the gut

    No full text
    Activated lamina propria T cells responding to luminal Ags are thought to be important in celiac disease and Crohn's disease, and T cells responding to foreign MHC products are also important in intestinal graft-vs-host disease and intestinal transplant rejection. However, the mechanism(s) by which T cells mediate damage in the gut is not known. We have previously shown that activation of lamina propria T cells by PWM in explant cultures of second trimester human small intestine produces severe tissue injury, with epithelial cell shedding and loss of villi. In this study, we have investigated the role of matrix metalloproteinases in this system. Organ culture supernatants of explants stimulated with PWM showed a 3-fold increase in the concentration of interstitial collagenase and a 10-fold increase in stromelysin-1 compared with control explant culture supernatants. Tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase-1 and -2 concentrations were unchanged. Increased metalloproteinase enzymatic activity was detected by gelatin and casein zymography. Western blotting revealed the active forms of interstitial collagenase and stromelysin-1 in PWM-stimulated culture supernatants. Up-regulation of mRNA for interstitial collagenase, stromelysin-1, and gelatinase-B was also seen. Nanomolar amounts of recombinant stromelysin-1 added directly to explants produced rapid severe tissue injury. PWM-induced mucosal injury was inhibited by a synthetic peptidomimetic inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases. Mesenchymal cells isolated from the mucosa of human fetal small intestine produced increased amounts of interstitial collagenase, gelatinase A, and stromelysin-1 when stimulated with IL-1beta or TNF-alpha. These results suggest that T cell activation in the lamina propria results in increased production of matrix metalloproteinases, which by degrading the lamina propria matrix represent a major pathway by which T cells cause injury in the gut

    Transmission disequilibrium test of stromelysin-1 gene variation in relation to Crohn's disease

    No full text
    Crohn’s disease (MIM 266600) and ulcerative colitis (MIM 191390) are the major forms of inflammatory bowel disease (MIM 601458), the prevalence of Crohn’s disease being more than 1/1000 in the Western countries.1 Inflammatory bowel disease is characterised by chronic relapsing intestinal inflammation, and its pathogenesis probably involves microbial, immunological, environmental, and genetic factors.2,3 Recent genetic association studies have shown that sequence variations in the Caspase Activating Recruitment Domain (CARD15) gene (MIM605956, formerly named NOD2) on chromosome 16q are a strong genetic factor for Crohn’s disease but not for ulcerative colitis.4–6CARD15 represents the first major Crohn’s disease susceptibility gene identified, and its identification might facilitate the uncovering of other genetic factors for the disease
    corecore