Rosen H, Behar O, Abramsky O, Ovadia H
Department of Molecular Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
J Immunol. 1989 Dec 1;143(11):3703-7.
The expression of proenkephalin A (PEA), a neuropeptide-encoding gene, was examined in normal rat lymphocytes. With the use of Northern blot hybridization analysis of total RNA, PEA mRNA was found in normal cells derived from spleen, lymph nodes, and bone marrow. Cell sorting of the two main fractions of B and T cells derived from the spleen revealed that PEA is expressed in normal B cells (sIg+). The expression of PEA mRNA was markedly enhanced after a short incubation (3 h) of cells with LPS or Salmonella typhimurium. This was not the case when these cells were incubated with Con A during the same period of time; whereas, in thymocytes the presence of PEA mRNA was exclusively dependent upon mitogenic stimulus (Con A) and could be detected after 24 h of in vitro incubation. Extracts of cells were also found to contain immune reactive enkephalins, indicating that the PEA mRNA is translated. These results support the concept that neuropeptides, such as enkephalins, have a role in the modulation of the immune response and may participate in the bidirectional communication between the nervous and immune systems.
在正常大鼠淋巴细胞中检测了前脑啡肽原A（PEA）（一种神经肽编码基因）的表达。通过对总RNA进行Northern印迹杂交分析，在源自脾脏、淋巴结和骨髓的正常细胞中发现了PEA mRNA。对源自脾脏的B细胞和T细胞这两个主要部分进行细胞分选显示，PEA在正常B细胞（表面免疫球蛋白阳性）中表达。在用脂多糖（LPS）或鼠伤寒沙门氏菌短时间（3小时）孵育细胞后，PEA mRNA的表达显著增强。在同一时间段内用刀豆蛋白A（Con A）孵育这些细胞时则并非如此；然而，在胸腺细胞中，PEA mRNA的存在完全依赖于促有丝分裂刺激（Con A），并且在体外孵育24小时后可以检测到。还发现细胞提取物中含有免疫反应性脑啡肽，表明PEA mRNA被翻译了。这些结果支持了这样一种概念，即神经肽，如脑啡肽，在免疫反应的调节中起作用，并且可能参与神经和免疫系统之间的双向通信。
