Abstract

Effect of four intestinal strains on TNF-a ± IL8 and IL6 expression in Caco-2 cells

Author(s): Yongbo Kang* & Yue Cai

Gut microbiota play an important roles in induction of various cellular responses, including cytokine production. In this work, we examined the involvement of four intestinal strains in induction of the cytokine response (the relative expression of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8) in intestinal epithelial cells. Caco-2 cells were treated with cell-free supernatants (CFS) of four intestinal strains: Shigella spp., Bacteroides fragilis, Weissella cibaria, Enterococcus faecium. Shigella spp., Bacteroides fragilis, Weissella cibaria, Enterococcus faecium CFSs resulted in marked an increase of mRNA TNF-α content ( p<0.05 or p<0.01).In additon, Shigella spp. CFS, Bacteroides fragilis CFS, Weissella cibaria CFS significantly increased expression mRNA for IL-8 ( p<0.05 or p<0.01), In contrast, Enterococcus faecium caused significant a decrease of mRNA IL-8(p<0.01). Last but not the least important, Shigella spp., Bacteroides fragilis, Weissella cibaria, Enterococcus faecium CFSs led to mark an increase of mRNA IL-6 level (p<0.01). These results indicate that four intestinal strains produce bioactive metabolites, suggesting that gut microbiota metabolites may therefore provide an entirely new approach towards protection of intestinal epithelial and treatment of human diseases.