Regulation of keratins in colonocytes during inflammatory signaling
Kähärä, Kirah (2023)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20231121148025
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20231121148025
Tiivistelmä
The colon is part of the gastrointestinal tract, with the main function of absorbing water, moving and storing fecal material as well as inhabiting micro-organisms. Keratins are intermediate filament proteins important for epithelial cell structure and homeostasis and many other cellular processes. They have also been suggested to have a protective function in the colon. Keratin 7 is not expressed in the healthy colon epithelium in humans. In inflammatory bowel disease, colonocyte keratin 7 expression is increased and has been reported in some inflammatory bowel disease-associated colorectal tumors. However, in inflammatory bowel disease, there is little understanding of the regulatory mechanism of keratin 7.
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn´s disease are two chronic intestinal diseases collectively referred to as inflammatory bowel disease, which exhibit acute and chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. The innate immune response acts as the first line of defense and is linked to the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system consists of immune cells that monitor the gut. The innate immune cells secrete cytokines to recruit more innate immune cells to the site of infection, activate adaptive immune cells and adaptive immune responses, and affect epithelial cells which is important in promoting tissue repair. The aim in this research is to investigate ex vivo and in vitro whether immune cells affect keratin expression in colonic epithelial cells. To study this, I investigated if immune cell-derived factors from neutrophil and macrophage conditioned media affect keratin expression in a human colon cancer epithelial cell line expressing keratin 7. The analysis was conducted by using flow cytometry analysis.
In summary, keratin 7 protein expression was shown to be increased in colon cancer epithelial-derived cells after treatment with macrophage and neutrophil conditioned media. Furthermore, FACS analysis was shown to be a successful method to study keratin expression in single colon cancer epithelial-derived cells.
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn´s disease are two chronic intestinal diseases collectively referred to as inflammatory bowel disease, which exhibit acute and chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. The innate immune response acts as the first line of defense and is linked to the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system consists of immune cells that monitor the gut. The innate immune cells secrete cytokines to recruit more innate immune cells to the site of infection, activate adaptive immune cells and adaptive immune responses, and affect epithelial cells which is important in promoting tissue repair. The aim in this research is to investigate ex vivo and in vitro whether immune cells affect keratin expression in colonic epithelial cells. To study this, I investigated if immune cell-derived factors from neutrophil and macrophage conditioned media affect keratin expression in a human colon cancer epithelial cell line expressing keratin 7. The analysis was conducted by using flow cytometry analysis.
In summary, keratin 7 protein expression was shown to be increased in colon cancer epithelial-derived cells after treatment with macrophage and neutrophil conditioned media. Furthermore, FACS analysis was shown to be a successful method to study keratin expression in single colon cancer epithelial-derived cells.