Project description:Comparison of faecal flora of three healthy individuals and a patient suffering from Ulcerative Colitis during disease and remission states. Faecal samples were taken and frozen at -80 within one hour.
Project description:Ulcerative colitis (UC), belonging to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, which is not completely cured so far. Valeriana jatamansi is a Chinese medicine used clinically to treat "diarrhea", which is closely related to UC. This study was to elucidate the therapeutic effects of V. jatamansi extract (VJE) on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced UC in mice and its underlying mechanism. In this work, VJE effectively ameliorate the symptoms, histopathological scores and reduce the production of inflammatory factors of UC mice. The colon untargeted metabolomics analysis and 16S rDNA sequencing showed remarkable differences in colon metabolite profiles and intestinal microbiome composition between the control and DSS groups, and VJE intervention can reduce these differences. Thirty-two biomarkers were found and modulated the primary pathways including pyrimidine metabolism, arginine biosynthesis and glutathione metabolism. Meanwhile, twelve significant taxa of gut microbiota were found. Moreover, there is a close relationship between endogenous metabolites and intestinal flora. These findings suggested that VJE ameliorates UC by inhibiting inflammatory factors, recovering intestinal maladjustment, and regulating the interaction between intestinal microbiota and host metabolites. Therefore, the intervention of V. jatamansi is a potential therapeutic treatment for UC.
Project description:Background; MUC2 mucin produced by intestinal goblet cells is the major component of the intestinal mucus barrier. MUC2 homo-oligomerizes intracellularly into large secreted polymers which give mucus its viscous properties. The inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) ulcerative colitis is characterized by depleted goblet cells and a reduced mucus layer, whereas goblet cells and the mucus layer are increased in the other major inflammatory bowel disease, Crohnâs disease. Methods and Findings; By murine N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea-mutagenesis we identified two distinct non-complementing missense mutations in Muc2 exons encoding N- and C-terminal homo-oligomerization domains causing an ulcerative colitis-like phenotype. Both strains developed mild spontaneous distal intestinal inflammation, chronic diarrhea, rectal bleeding and prolapse, increased susceptibility to acute and chronic colitis induced by a luminal toxin, aberrant Muc2 biosynthesis, smaller goblet cell thecae (less stored mucin) and a diminished mucus barrier. Enhanced local production of IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma was seen in the distal colon. The number of leukocytes within mesenteric lymph nodes was increased five-fold and leukocytes cultured in vitro produced both Th1 and Th2 cytokines (IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and IL-13). Intestinal permeability was increased and the luminal bacterial flora were more heavily coated with immunoglobulin as occurs in IBD. This pathology was accompanied by accumulation of the Muc2 precursor and ultrastructural and biochemical evidence of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in goblet cells, activation of the unfolded protein response, and altered intestinal expression of genes involved in ER stress, inflammation, apoptosis and wound repair. Expression of mutated Muc2 oligomerization domains in vitro demonstrated that aberrant Muc2 oligomerization underlies the ER stress. These models show that mutations in Muc2 oligomerization domains can lead to aberrant assembly of the Muc2 complex leading to ER stress, a depleted mucus barrier and intestinal inflammation. In ulcerative colitis we demonstrate similar accumulation of non-glycosylated MUC2 precursor in goblet cells together with ultrastructural and biochemical evidence of ER stress even in non-inflamed intestinal tissue. Conclusions; The observations that mucin misfolding and ER stress lead directly to intestinal inflammation and that ER stress and goblet cell pathology occur in ulcerative colitis suggest that ER stress-related mucin depletion could be a fundamental component of the pathogenesis of colitis. Experiment Overall Design: 3 individual mice from the Eeyore, Winnie or Wild-type strains were compared as groups. An Affymetrix ID was compared between groups if the ID was Present within two of the three mice within each grouping. IDs were compared by calculating the log2 of Group One average signal divided by Group 2 average signal.
Project description:Restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis is a surgical procedure in patients with ulcerative colitis refractory to medical therapies. Pouchitis, the most common complication, is inflammation of the pouch of unknown etiology. To define how the intestinal immune system is distinctly organized in response to inflammation and to develop mechanistic hypotheses of pouchitis, we analyzed tissues from patients with and without pouchitis and from patients with ulcerative colitis using single-cell RNA sequencing. We examined pouch lamina propria CD45+ hematopoietic cells from intestinal tissues of ulcerative colitis patients with (n=15) and without an ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (n=11). Further in silico meta-analysis was performed to generate transcriptional interaction networks and identify drug targets for patients with inflamed pouches. We identified a population of IL1B+ antimicrobial macrophages and FOXP3+/BATF+ T cells that are expanded in inflamed tissues, which we further validated in other single cell RNA-seq datasets from IBD patients. Cell type specific markers obtained from single-cell RNA-sequencing was used to infer representation from bulk RNA sequencing datasets, which further implicated antimicrobial macrophages expressing IL1B with S100A8/A9 calprotectin as being associated with inflammation, and Bacteroidiales and Clostridiales bacterial taxa. We found that non-responsiveness to anti-integrin biologic therapies in ulcerative colitis patients was associated with the signature of this antimicrobial macrophage population in a subset of patients. This study identified conserved and distinct features of intestinal inflammation between parts of the small and large intestine undergoing similar inflammation conditions. Specifically, we relate inflammation of the pouch, a surgically constructed organ, to other inflammatory contexts throughout the gastrointestinal tract.
Project description:Ulcerative Colitis is an autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation in the colon and the rectum. Althoung extensively researched, the underlying molecular mechanisms of Ulcerative Colitis remain elusive. Especially, there is a lack of understanding about regulatory non-coding miRNA expression during Ulcerative Colitis. Therefore, we performed high-throughput miRNA profiling of colon tissue biopsies from XX patients with active Ulcerative Colitis, XX patients with quiescent Ulcerative Colitis and XX Symptomatic Control individuals.
Project description:The goal of this project is to find out whether human intestinal IgA1 and IgA2 secretion, transport and reactivity towards the microbiota might be involved in dysbiosis induction during Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis. Mass spectrometry was used to characterize SIgA from Crohn’s disease patient and Ulcerative colitis patient, in term of O- and N-glycosylation in order to study their reverse transcytosis capacity and their role in intestinal inflammation.
Project description:Dysregulated protease activity is often implicated in the initiation of inflammation and immune cell recruitment in gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases. Using N-terminomics/TAILS (terminal amine isotopic labeling of substrates), we compared proteases, along with their substrates and inhibitors, between colonic mucosal biopsies of healthy patients and those with ulcerative colitis (UC). Among the 1,642 N-termini enriched using TAILS, increased endogenous processing of proteins was identified in UC compared to healthy patients. Changes in the reactome pathways for proteins associated with metabolism, adherens junction proteins (E-cadherin, liver-intestinal cadherin, catenin alpha-1 and catenin delta-1) and neutrophil degranulation were identified between the two groups. Increased neutrophil infiltration and distinct proteases observed in ulcerative colitis may result in extensive break down, altered processing or increased remodeling of adherens junctions and other cellular functions. Analysis of the proteolytic preferred cleavage sites indicated that the majority of proteolytic activity and processing comes from host proteases, but that key microbial proteases may also play a role in maintaining homeostasis. Thus, the identification of distinct proteases and processing of their substrates improves the understanding of dysregulated proteolysis in normal intestinal physiology and ulcerative colitis.
Project description:Ulcerative Colitis is an autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation in the colon and the rectum. Althoung extensively researched, the underlying molecular mechanisms of Ulcerative Colitis remain elusive. Especially, there is a lack of understanding about regulatory non-coding miRNA expression during Ulcerative Colitis in a cell type-specific context. Therefore, we performed high-throughput miRNA profiling of Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS)-enriched CD66a+ and CD44+ colonic epithelial cell populations from colon tissue biopsies of 16 patients with active Ulcerative Colitis, 15 patients with quiescent Ulcerative Colitis and 17 Symptomatic Control individuals.