B Inhibition in a Mouse Model of Chronic Colitis1
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The Journal of Immunology Differential Expression of Inflammatory and Fibrogenic Genes and Their Regulation by NF-B Inhibition in a Mouse Model of Chronic Colitis1 Feng Wu and Shukti Chakravarti2 Fibrosis is a major complication of chronic inflammation, as seen in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two forms of inflam- matory bowel diseases. To elucidate inflammatory signals that regulate fibrosis, we investigated gene expression changes under- lying chronic inflammation and fibrosis in trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced murine colitis. Six weekly 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid enemas were given to establish colitis and temporal gene expression patterns were obtained at 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-wk time points. The 6-wk point, TNBS-w6, was the active, chronic inflammatory stage of the model marked by macrophage, neu- trophil, and CD3؉ and CD4؉ T cell infiltrates in the colon, consistent with the idea that this model is T cell immune response driven. Proinflammatory genes Cxcl1, Ccl2, Il1b, Lcn2, Pla2g2a, Saa3, S100a9, Nos2, Reg2, and Reg3g, and profibrogenic extra- cellular matrix genes Col1a1, Col1a2, Col3a1, and Lum (lumican), encoding a collagen-associated proteoglycan, were up-regulated at the active/chronic inflammatory stages. Rectal administration of the NF-B p65 antisense oligonucleotide reduced but did not abrogate inflammation and fibrosis completely. The antisense oligonucleotide treatment reduced total NF-B by 60% and down- regulated most proinflammatory genes. However, Ccl2, a proinflammatory chemokine known to promote fibrosis, was not down- regulated. Among extracellular matrix gene expressions Lum was suppressed while Col1a1 and Col3a1 were not. Thus, effective treatment of fibrosis in inflammatory bowel disease may require early and complete blockade of NF-B with particular attention to specific proinflammatory and profibrogenic genes that remain active at low levels of NF-B. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 6988–7000. ibrosis is a major complication of chronic inflammation, as innate immunity and acute phase response (8, 9). In IBD patients, the seen in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two major lamina propria macrophages have increased NF-B p65 expression F forms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).3 Crohn’s dis- and DNA-binding activity accompanied by an increased production ease in particular is prone to complications of fibrosis and stenosis (1, of IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-␣ (10). 2). The 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) hapten, given as In the chronic TNBS-induce colitis model, we have further shown one or two enemas with ethanol as a carrier to disrupt epithelial in- that NF-B antisense oligonucleotide enemas, given each time with tegrity, induces acute inflammation and colitis in the mouse with the TNBS treatment, reduced the severity of disease in terms of body Crohn’s colitis-like transmural tissue damage (3–5). In an earlier weight loss and colonic inflammation as seen by histology (6). study, we modified the TNBS-induced colitis model by giving mul- Trichrome-stained histology of colon from TNBS-w8 mice treated tiple low doses of TNBS over a period of 6 wk that resulted in chronic with the NF-B antisense oligonucleotide indicated considerable re- inflammation and fibrotic changes in the colonic tissue that persisted duction in collagen deposition, with only 33% of the animals showing for at least 4 wk without additional TNBS administration (6). Neurath residual mild fibrosis. Another study of chronic TNBS-induced colitis et al. (7) showed that acute inflammation in the TNBS-induced colitis achieved increased inhibition of fibrosis using a deoxyoligonucleotide model could be abrogated by blocking NF-B p65 subunit expression that binds to the general NF-B-binding consensus sequence, deliv- with an antisense oligonucleotide targeted against the translation start ered directly into cells by encapsulating the oligonucleotide in a Sen- site. The NF-B transcription factor regulates the expression of a va- dai virus envelope (11). riety of genes that encode proinflammatory cytokines and proteins of In the current study, we explored the connection between chronic inflammation and fibrosis in the TNBS-induced colitis model with specific blockade of the p65 NF-B subunit. Gene Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205 expression patterns of the colon were obtained at defined times from chronic inflammatory to late stages of the model. Our results Received for publication September 22, 2006. Accepted for publication August 17, 2007. show that high expression of inflammation-related genes at TNBS- The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page w6, a stage with active and chronic inflammation, was followed by charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance their rapid decline. Profibrogenic extracellular matrix genes were with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. also up-regulated at this stage, but their overexpression continued 1 This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant EY11654 and a Senior after inflammation had subsided. We further studied the amelio- Research Investigator Award from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (to S.C.). rative effects of NF-B p65 inhibition on the expression of specific 2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Shukti Chakravarti, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, inflammation and fibrosis-related genes. 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21205. E-mail address: [email protected] 3 Abbreviations used in this paper: IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; ECM, extra- Materials and Methods cellular matrix; qRT-PCR, quantitative RT-PCR; TNBS, 2,4,6,trinitrobenzene sul- Experimental colitis and NF-B blockade fonic acid; CT, cycle threshold. CD-1 outbred female mice, 10–12 wk old (Charles River Laboratories), Copyright © 2007 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. 0022-1767/07/$2.00 were maintained in a conventional animal housing facility at the Johns www.jimmunol.org The Journal of Immunology 6989 detected in the sample. The background signal was 76 Ϯ 7 arbitrary units. We compared saline-w6 with TNBS-w6 and saline-w10 with TNBS-w8, TNBS-w10, TNBS-w12, respectively. Compared with the saline control, the expression signal in the TNBS-treated groups was considered signifi- cantly different if 1) fold change was Ͼ2, 2) a difference in signal intensity of 100 arbitrary units or greater, and 3) received a “present call” in at least one array. The following web sites were used for functional annotation of novel genes, GeneCards (www.genecards.org/) (13) and National Center for Bio- technology Information (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez). FIGURE 1. Overview of a mouse model of TNBS-induced chronic co- litis. Mice were given TNBS enemas weekly for 6 wk and sacrificed at Real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) weeks 6, 8, 10, and 12 for histology, immunohistology, and isolation of To confirm the gene expression changes, RT-PCR were performed by us- total RNA for qRT-PCR and microarray gene expression profiling. ing a QuantiTect SYBR Green PCR Kit (Qiagen) with the following spe- cific primers: Gapdh: forward 5Ј-TTGTCTCCTGCGACTTCA, reverse 5Ј- CCTGTTGCTGTAGCCGTATT; Il1b: forward 5Ј-GAATCTATACCTGT Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) following animal protocols approved CCTGTG, reverse 5Ј-ACCGCTTTTCCATCTTCT; Cxcl1: forward 5Ј-AC by the Animal Use and Care Committee at Johns Hopkins University. The TGCACCCAAACCGAAGTC, reverse 5Ј-CAAGGGAGCTTCAGG-GTC chronic colitis model was developed by weekly enemas of TNBS (Sigma- AA; Col1a1: forward 5Ј-GTACTCCTGGTGCTGATG, reverse 5Ј-GAAG Aldrich) in 0.1 ml of 45% ethanol given once a week for 6 wk (6). For the CCTCTTTC-TCCTCTCTGA. Col3a1: forward 5Ј-CAGGTCCTAGAGG NF-B blockade, mice were treated intrarectally with 150 g of an anti- AA-ACAGA, reverse 5Ј-TCACC-TCCAACTCCAACAATG; Lum: sense phosphorothioate oligonucleotide for the NF-B subunit p65 (5Ј- forward 5Ј-TCGAGCTTGAT-CTCTCCTAT, reverse 5Ј-TGGTCCCAGG GAAACAGATCGTCCATGGT-3Ј), or control oligonucleotide (5Ј- ATCTTACAGAA; Pla2g2a: forward 5Ј-CAAAGG-ATTCCCCCAAGGA Ј Ј Ј GTACTACTCTGAGCAAGGA-3 ) in 0.1 ml of dH2O 1 day before each T, reverse 5 -CTCCAGGCGCTTGTAGCAA; Saa3: forward 5 -CCTGG TNBS enema (7). Mice given saline enemas alone were used as controls. GCTGCTAAAGTC-ATCA, reverse 5Ј-TCTTGAGTCCTCTGCTCCATG Signs of colitis, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss, piloerection, lethargy TC; Reg2: forward 5Ј-AGGAGAGTGG-TACTACAGCTTCCAA, reverse and periorbital exudates were monitored as described previously (5). After 5Ј-CGACGGTTACTTTTAG-GGTCATG; Reg3g: forward 5Ј-GGTAACA the six TNBS enemas, mice were sacrificed 3 days (termed as TNBS-w6), GTGGCCAATATGTATGG, reverse 5Ј-ATCCACCTCTGTTGGGTTCA 2 wk (TNBS-w8), 4 wk (TNBS-w10), or 6 wk (TNBS-w12) later (see Fig. TAG; and Ccl2: forward 5Ј-CCCAATGAGTAGGCTGGAGA, reverse 5Ј- 1).The TNBS-w6 stage was considered to reflect active, chronic inflam- TCTGGACCCATTCCTT-CTTG. The cycles passing threshold (CT) were ⌬ mation and was selected as the first time point of the study. The saline recorded and relative expression level of a target gene ϭ 2 CT, where ⌬ ϭ Ϫ control groups were also sacrificed at week 6 (saline-w6), week 8, and CT CT of Gapdh CT of the target gene. week 10. The last two sets were pooled as saline-w10. Colon tissue sam- ples were collected at 4 Ϯ 0.5 cm from the anus and placed immediately Immunohistochemistry into 1) 4% formalin for histology, 2) TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen Life Tech- nologies) for total RNA isolation, and 3) T-PER Tissue Protein Extraction The ABC kit (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) was used for immunohistochem- Reagent (Pierce) for protein isolation. istry staining on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded colonic sections. Pri- mary Abs included: goat polyclonal anti-mouse S100A9 (1/250; Santa Gene expression microarray and data analysis Cruz Biotechnology), rabbit polyclonal anti-mouse lumican (10 g/ml) (14), rabbit anti-human CD3 clone PSI, and mouse anti-human CD4 clone The Murine Genome_U74Av2 array chip (Affymetrix) containing 12,400 IF6 (Ventana Medical Systems).