Project description:The EP4 receptor is known to mediate the protective effect of prostaglandin (PG) E2 in the gastrointestinal tract; however, the exact role of epithelial EP4 in intestinal pathophysiology remains unknown. We investigated the role of epithelial EP4 in maintaining colonic homeostasis by characterizing the intestinal epithelial cell-specific EP4 knockout (EP4 cKO) mice. We found a significant enrichment of genes involved in apoptosis-related pathways in the EP4 cKO colons. Moreover, inflammation-associated pathways were highly enriched and revealed more than half of the top 20 pathways related to immune response.
Project description:The experiment was designed to identify transcriptomic changes induced by selective EP4 agonism during experimental colitis. The mice received 1mg/ kg of the selective EP4 agonist, EP4-D or sterile phosphate buffered saline as vehicle control orally once per day concomitant with 3% DSS in drinking water. The DSS treatment was stopped on day 5 and mice were provided access to autoclaved drinking water for 3 additional days along with agonist and vehicle treatments once daily as described above. At the end of the treatment period, colon tissues from the mice were harvested, RNA isolated, and sequenced to identify transcriptional changes.
Project description:To define the mechanisms that underlie regeneration driven by EP4+ macrophages, we transcriptionally compared the WT and Csf1r-EP4-/- mature macrophages isolated from colon by 39 days post DSS treatment.