Department of Anesthesiology & Center for Brain Science, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710061, Shaanxi, China.
J Mol Histol. 2021 Feb;52(1):101-111. doi: 10.1007/s10735-020-09927-z. Epub 2020 Nov 17.
Enteric glial cells are more abundant than neurons in the enteric nervous system. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that enteric glial cells share many properties with astrocytes and play pivotal roles in intestinal diseases. NDRG2 is specifically expressed in astrocytes and is involved in various diseases in the central nervous system. However, no studies have demonstrated the expression of NDRG2 in enteric glial cells. We performed immunostaining of adult mouse tissue, human colon sections, and primary enteric glial cells and the results showed that NDRG2 was widely expressed in enteric glial cells. Meanwhile, our results showed that NDRG2 was upregulated after treatment with pro-inflammatory cytokines and exposure to oxygen glucose deprivation/reoxygenation, indicating that NDRG2 might be involved in these conditions. Moreover, we determined that NDRG2 translocated to the nucleus after treatment with pro-inflammatory cytokines but not after exposure to oxygen glucose deprivation/reoxygenation. This study is the first to show the expression and distribution of NDRG2 in the enteric glia. Our results indicate that NDRG2 might be involved in the pathogenesis of enteric inflammation and ischemia/reperfusion injury. This study shows that NDRG2 might be a molecular target for enteric nervous system diseases.
肠胶质细胞在肠神经系统中的数量多于神经元。越来越多的证据表明，肠胶质细胞与星形胶质细胞具有许多共同特性，并在肠道疾病中发挥关键作用。NDRG2 特异性表达于星形胶质细胞，并参与中枢神经系统的多种疾病。然而，目前尚无研究表明 NDRG2 存在于肠胶质细胞中。我们对成年小鼠组织、人结肠切片和原代肠胶质细胞进行免疫染色，结果表明 NDRG2 广泛表达于肠胶质细胞中。同时，我们的结果表明，促炎细胞因子处理和氧葡萄糖剥夺/再复氧后 NDRG2 表达上调，提示 NDRG2 可能参与这些情况。此外，我们发现促炎细胞因子处理后 NDRG2 向核内转位，但氧葡萄糖剥夺/再复氧后则无此现象。本研究首次显示 NDRG2 在肠胶质细胞中的表达和分布。我们的结果表明，NDRG2 可能参与肠炎症和缺血/再灌注损伤的发病机制。本研究表明，NDRG2 可能是治疗肠神经系统疾病的分子靶点。
