Academic literature on the topic 'Diabetes Pathogenesis Animal models'

The intestine is the largest lymphoid organ in the body, challenged constantly by an enonnous quantity and diversity of antigens. Distinct from peripheral lymphocytes, intestinal lymphocytes have evolved unique mechanisms of tolerance and appear to govern mucosal processes such as "chronic physiologic inflammation" and oral tolerance. Failure of mucosal tolerance has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, and even autoimmune diabetes. One population of intestinal lymphocytes, intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs), exists within the intestinal epithelium itself and remains poorly characterized. IELs respond to unique activation signals and appear to be in part responsible for the maintenance of epithelial integrity and mucosal tolerance. Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic childhood illnesses and causes significant morbidity and mortality. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is an autoimmune disease that results from immune-mediated destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells and is characterized by an absolute insulin deficiency. Several animal models are used to study the immunopathogenesis of type 1 diabetes, including the BB rat and NOD mouse. BBDP rats spontaneously develop autoimmune diabetes mellitus and are severely deficient in peripheral T cells. BBDR rats do not spontaneously develop autoimmune diabetes, have nonnal numbers of peripheral T cells, and can be induced to become diabetic by injections of a cytotoxic anti-ART2a mAb and low doses of poly I:C. The cause of autoimmune diabetes in BB rats and humans is still unknown, but both genetic and environmental factors appear to participate. I hypothesize that one important class of environmental factors--diet and enteromicrobial agents--participates in this pathogenic process through the mediation of the gut immune system. In this dissertation, I report a new method for the isolation of rat IELs that is based on the selective removal of intestinal epithelial cells under conditions that leave the basement membrane undisturbed. The yield of rat IELs using this method is 5-10 fold greater than that reported for other methods. Morphological and phenotypic analyses demonstrate that the purified cell population is comprised of IELs and is not contaminated with lamina propria or Peyer's patch lymphocytes. Phenotypic analysis reveals 5 major subsets of IELs, including populations of γδ T and natural killer (NK) cells present at levels not previously detected. I also report that rat intraepithelial NK (IENK) and peripheral NK cells are similar in morphology, in their ability to lyse NK-sensitive targets, and in their ability to suppress a one-way mixed lymphocyte culture. In contrast, IENK cells differ from splenic NK cells phenotypically, and a substantial fraction of IENK cells appear to spontaneously secrete IL-4 and/or IFN-γ. I conclude that rat IELs harbor a large population of NKR-P1A+ CD3-cells that function as NK cells but display an activated phenotype and unusual cytokine profile that clearly distinguish them from splenic NK cells. Their phenotypic and functional characteristics suggest that these distinctive intraepithelial NK cells may participate in the regulation of mucosal immunity. I next demonstrate that, prior to diabetes, both BBDP and ART2a-depleted BBDR rats have a reduced total number of IELs and exhibit a selective deficiency of IENK cell number and function as compared to control BBDR rats. The deficiency of BBDP rat IELs can be corrected by engraftment of bone marrow from histocompatible WF donors. These results suggest 1) that the peripheral lymphopenia in BBDP rats extends to the IEL compartment, particularly to IENK cells, 2) that in BBDR rats the diabetes-inducing treatment depletes IELs, particularly IENK cells, and 3) that the defect in BBDP rat IELs is intrinsic to hematopoietic cells, not intestinal stromal cells. I also establish that, unlike BBDR and WF rats, BBDP rats are also deficient in γδTCR+IELs, a population of T cells that may play a role in normal mucosal tolerance. In addition, I report preliminary data supporting the hypothesis that systemic autoreactivity may be initiated in the intestine; peripheral autoreactive lymphocyte populations appear to emanate first from mesenteric lymph nodes that drain the intestine, and such cells may initiate a type 2 autoimmune phenomenon driven by IL-4. Collectively, my findings support the hypothesis that a failure of mucosal tolerance in BBDP rats, perhaps secondary to deficiencies in one or more IEL subpopulations, participates in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes in these animals by activating peripheral autoreactive T cells. The nature of the autoimmune response in BB rats (driven by IL-4) appears to be distinct from that of NOD mice. Despite the differences between these two well-accepted animal models of autoimmune diabetes, until more is known about the pathogenesis of type 1 DM in humans, lessons learned from both the BB rat and NOD mouse continue to be of tremendous benefit to our understanding of human disease.

Diabetes is considered as a prominent threat to the worldwide population, and if left untreated may result in a number of severe complications, cognitive deterioration, and death. For the most prevalent form of the disease, type 2 diabetes, the main contributing factors to the development of the disease is being overweight and obese. There are a number of mediating factors regarding the relationship between excessive weight gain and subsequent development of diabetes, the most widely supported of which is the typical eating behaviours of the individual. While the physiological characteristics of diabetes are well-known, much less is understood in relation to the behavioural consequences. Animal models may aid our understanding of a disease, but the animal model used should not only replicate the physiological symptoms but also the behavioural characteristics. The studies discussed within this thesis encompass a thorough behavioural evaluation of two of the most commonly used diet-induced and chemically-induced animal models of diabetes; the high-fat diet model of obesity induced diabetes and Streptozotocin induced diabetes. The main focus of investigation was on the impact of the disease regarding the food preferences and motivations of mice to obtain food, using a classical method for assessing preference (T-maze) and motivation to respond for different appetitive stimuli on an operant conditioning schedule of food reinforcement (progressive ratio schedule, PR). During the latter phase of experiments, a range of behavioural processes (e.g. food deprivation alterations, prefeeding with or without satiation, and extinction) were also assessed in relation to how these may be affected by the presence of diabetes. In the final study, a new model of PR performance was applied to the results, with the intention of addressing issues relating to the accurate measurement of motivation under a PR schedule. Orderly behavioural data were obtained but neither model of diabetes showed clear effects on food motivation. Results are presented and discussed in relation to the limitations and implications of the research.

Miosina VB es una proteína que actúa como un motor molecular usando la energía del ATP para moverse a lo largo de filamentos de actina. Participa en el trafico intracelular de endosomas de reciclaje en la parte subapical de células polarizadas y no polarizadas. Su expresión es muy abundante en el intestino donde participa en el establecimiento y mantenimiento de la polaridad de los enterocitos. Mutaciones en MYO5B causan la enfermedad de inclusión de microvellosidades, in raro trastorno congénito que afecta a las células epiteliales del intestino cursando con diarrea acuosa persistente que suele ser fatal. Esta enfermedad se caracteriza por la presencia de alteraciones morfológicas en los enterocitos, atrofia de las vellosidades y deslocalización de proteínas del polo apical y basolateral del enterocito. Su patología molecular no se conoce, principalmente por la falta de modelos animales. En el presente estudio, describimos un versátil modelo murino con inactivación constitutiva de Myo5b e inactivación condicional en las células epiteliales intestinales inducida por tamoxifeno. En ambos casos, los animales muestras un cuadro clínico muy semejantes al de los pacientes con enfermedad de inclusión de microvellosidades, presentado diarrea y deshidratación que causan la muerte del animal. A nivel histológico, el intestino muestra las mismas alteraciones en los enterocitos que las presentes en pacientes humanos, incluyendo atrofia de vellosidades y deslocalización de marcadores proteicos. Además, la inactivación de Myo5b también provocó hiperproliferación de las criptas intestinales. Por lo tanto, el modelo animal presentado constituye una herramienta muy útil para investigar las causas moleculares de la enfermedad y ensayar de manera preclínica fármacos u otras opciones terapéuticas. Por otro lado, la pérdida de polaridad y diferenciación es también una de las señas de identidad de los carcinomas metastásicos avanzados y correlaciona con un mal pronóstico de los pacientes. En concreto, para el cáncer colorrectal, investigaciones previas llevadas a cabo en nuestro laboratorio ya han demostrado que la pérdida de miosina IA promueve la progresión la enfermedad y tiene actividad supresora de tumores. Dicha proteína es abundante en el borde en cepillo de los enterocitos, y participa en el mantenimiento de la estructura polarizada. Otros estudios han señalado la relación entre la inactivación de MYO5B con un incremento en la motilidad e invasión de células de cáncer gástrico, aunque todavía no se conoce nada de su relación con en el cáncer colorrectal. Para resolver esta cuestión, hemos diseñado modelos in vitro inducibles por doxiciclina para sobre expresar y reducir la expresión de dicha proteína en líneas celulares de cáncer de colon. Además, se ha empleado la tecnología CRISPR/Cas9 para inactivar la expresión de MYO5B en la línea de cáncer de colon Caco2-BBE. Los resultados muestran cambios en la polarización y diferenciación de dichas líneas celulares, de acuerdo con observaciones previas. También se ha observado una posible relación entre MYO5B y la capacidad de movilidad e invasión de las líneas de cáncer de colon. Sin embargo, la hiperproliferación observada en el intestino de los ratones no se reproduce en las líneas de cáncer de colon empleadas tras reducir o sobre expresar MYO5B, o en modelos xenograft subcutáneos in vivo de dichas líneas. Por otro lado, usando un microarray de tejidos con 155 muestras de tumores primarios de pacientes con cáncer colorrectal en estadio Dukes C se ha comprobado que una reducción en la expresión de MYO5B se asocia con una disminución en el tiempo de recaída y en la supervivencia total de los pacientes de cáncer de colon. Además, tumores con un grado de diferenciación bajo también expresan niveles de MYO5B significativamente reducidos. Finalmente, todos estos resultados indican que MYO5B juega un papel importante en la diferenciación del intestino normal y de las líneas de cáncer de colon. De la misma manera, MYO5B también podría desempeñar un papel en la progresión del cáncer colorrectal promoviendo movilidad e invasión de las células tumorales.<br>Myosin VB is a molecular motor protein that uses the energy of ATP to move along actin filaments. It participates in the recycling endosomes trafficking in the subapical cytoplasmic region of non-polarized and polarized cells. It is highly expressed in the small and large intestine, where its role in the establishment of polarized function in enterocytes is also well known. Inactivating mutations of MYO5B have been associated with microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), a rare congenital disorder of the intestinal epithelial cells that presents with persistent life-threatening watery diarrhea. It is characterized by morphological enterocyte abnormalities such as microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of apical and basolateral protein transporters. The molecular pathology of the disease is not well known mainly due to the lack of animal models. In the present study, we report a versatile murine model with targeted inactivation of Myo5b. This model allowed us to generate and characterized a constitutive Myo5b knockout mice and a tamoxifen-inducible intestinal-epithelium-specific Myo5b knockout. In both cases, the mice closely resemble the phenotype of MVID patients, developing watery diarrhea and dehydration causing the death of the animal. Histological study of the intestine showed all the characteristic enterocyte defects observed in MVID patients, including microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of protein markers. Moreover, the inactivation of MYO5B also originated hyperproliferation of the intestinal crypts. Therefore, our mice constitute a useful model to further investigate the underlying molecular mechanism of this disease and to preclinically assess the efficacy of novel therapeutic approaches. In addition, hyperproliferation as well as loss of cell polarity, differentiation, and tissue architecture are hallmarks of advanced metastatic carcinomas and strongly correlate with poor patient prognosis. Specifically, for colorectal cancer, the third most common type of cancer worldwide, we have previously demonstrated that the loss of brush border MYO1A, also involved in cell polarity, promotes cancer progression and has tumor suppressor activity. Other studies have indicated a relationship between MYO5B inactivation and gastric cancer, promoting invasion and motility, but little is known regarding its role in colorectal cancer. To address this question, we have developed novel doxycycline-inducible in vitro models of MYO5B overexpression and downregulation. Moreover, we have generated MYO5B knockout Caco2-BBE cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Our results showed changes in the polarization and differentiation of colon cancer cells, in agreement with previous observations in the normal intestine. Moreover, we have observed a relationship between MYO5B and the motility and invasion capacity of colon cancer cells, indicating a possible role of MYO5B in colon cancer progression. However, the effect of MYO5B loss in cell proliferation observed in our Myo5b knockout mice could not be confirmed in our models in vitro and in vivo, employing cell line-derived xenografts. In addition, using a tissue microarray containing triplicate samples from 155 primary Dukes C colorectal tumors, reduced MYO5B expression was found to be associated with shorter disease-free and overall survival of the patients. Moreover, poorly differentiated tumors showed significantly reduced expression of MYO5B. Collectively, our results indicate that MYO5B plays an important role in the differentiation of the normal intestinal epithelium and colon cancer cells, as well as a possible role in cancer progression promoting cell motility and invasion.