Okumura Takashi, Takeda Koji, Taniguchi Kiichiro, Adachi-Yamada Takashi
Department of Life Science, Faculty of Science, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Life Science, Faculty of Science, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan ; Graduate Course in Life Science, Graduate School of Science, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2014 Feb 20;9(2):e89387. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089387. eCollection 2014.
Proper control of adult stem cells including their proliferation and differentiation is crucial in maintaining homeostasis of well-organized tissues/organs throughout an organism's life. The Drosophila adult midgut has intestinal stem cells (ISCs), which have been exploited as a simple model system to investigate mechanisms controlling adult tissue homeostasis. Here, we found that a viable mutant of βν integrin (βint-ν), encoding one of two Drosophila integrin β subunits, showed a short midgut and abnormal multilayered epithelia accompanied by an increase in ISC proliferation and misdifferentiation defects. The increase in ISC proliferation and misdifferentiation was due to frequent ISC duplication expanding a pool of ISCs, which was caused by depression of the Notch signalling, and up-regulation of unpaired (upd), a gene encoding an extracellular ligand in the JAK/STAT signalling pathway. In addition, we observed that abnormally high accumulation of filamentous actin (F-actin) was caused in the βint-ν mutant enterocytes. Furthermore, the defects were rescued by suppressing c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signalling, which was up-regulated in a manner correlated with the defect levels in the above-mentioned βint-ν mutant phenotype. These symptoms observed in young βint-ν mutant midgut were very similar to those in the aged midgut in wild type. Our results suggested that βint-ν has a novel function for the Drosophila adult midgut homeostasis under normal conditions and provided a new insight into possible age-related diseases caused by latent abnormality of an integrin function.
在整个生物体的生命过程中,对成体干细胞的适当控制,包括其增殖和分化,对于维持组织/器官有序的内环境稳态至关重要。果蝇成虫中肠含有肠道干细胞(ISC),它已被用作研究控制成体组织内环境稳态机制的简单模型系统。在此,我们发现,编码果蝇两种整合素β亚基之一的βν整合素(βint-ν)的一个存活突变体,表现出中肠短小和上皮细胞多层异常,同时伴有ISC增殖增加和分化异常缺陷。ISC增殖增加和分化异常是由于频繁的ISC复制扩大了ISC库,这是由Notch信号通路的抑制以及未配对基因(upd)的上调引起的,upd是一种在JAK/STAT信号通路中编码细胞外配体的基因。此外,我们观察到在βint-ν突变体肠细胞中丝状肌动蛋白(F-肌动蛋白)异常大量积累。此外,通过抑制c-Jun氨基末端激酶(JNK)信号通路可以挽救这些缺陷,该信号通路在上述βint-ν突变体表型中与缺陷水平相关的方式上调。在年轻的βint-ν突变体中肠中观察到的这些症状与野生型老龄中肠中的症状非常相似。我们的结果表明,βint-ν在正常条件下对果蝇成虫中肠内环境稳态具有新功能,并为整合素功能潜在异常导致的可能与年龄相关的疾病提供了新的见解。