Li Chengyin, Zhu Fenglin, Wu Bin, Wang Yue
Department of Rheumatology, Chongqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing, China.
The First College of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
Neuroimmunomodulation. 2017;24(6):300-309. doi: 10.1159/000486859. Epub 2018 Apr 4.
Sjögren syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease involving exocrine glands. Currently, drugs that can improve both abnormal immunity and exocrine gland function are needed. The study aimed to investigate the effect and mechanism of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) on the immune response and exocrine gland function in SS.
We investigated the effects of VIP on the immune response and secretory function of submandibular glands using NOD mice, and analyzed the expression of IL-17A and AQP5 (aquaporin 5). The submandibular gland cells from healthy 8-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were used to observe the influence of VIP on AQP5 expression.
Our study shows that treatment with VIP in an SS mouse model could not only reduce the immune injury to exocrine glands but also improve the secretory function of these glands. Furthermore, VIP was shown to improve the abnormal immune status by downregulating IL-17A expression in the exocrine glands. It also enhanced the secretory function of exocrine glands by upregulating AQP5 expression.
Using a model of SS, we found that VIP could not only modulate the immune response but also affect exocrine gland function, and that these therapeutic effects were associated with IL-17A and AQP5 regulation.
干燥综合征（SS）是一种累及外分泌腺的自身免疫性疾病。目前，需要能够同时改善异常免疫和外分泌腺功能的药物。本研究旨在探讨血管活性肠肽（VIP）对SS免疫反应和外分泌腺功能的影响及机制。
我们使用非肥胖糖尿病（NOD）小鼠研究了VIP对颌下腺免疫反应和分泌功能的影响，并分析了白细胞介素-17A（IL-17A）和水通道蛋白5（AQP5）的表达。使用8日龄健康Sprague-Dawley大鼠的颌下腺细胞观察VIP对AQP5表达的影响。
我们的研究表明，在SS小鼠模型中用VIP治疗不仅可以减少对外分泌腺的免疫损伤，还可以改善这些腺体的分泌功能。此外，VIP通过下调外分泌腺中IL-17A的表达来改善异常免疫状态。它还通过上调AQP5表达增强外分泌腺的分泌功能。
使用SS模型，我们发现VIP不仅可以调节免疫反应，还可以影响外分泌腺功能，并且这些治疗效果与IL-17A和AQP5的调节有关。
