Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology of Alcohol, Prince Felipe Research Center, 46012 Valencia, Spain.
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Valencia, 15 Avda. Blasco Ibanez, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Nov 27;22(23):12830. doi: 10.3390/ijms222312830.
Chronic alcohol abuse causes an inflammatory response in the intestinal tract with damage to the integrity of the mucosa and epithelium, as well as dysbiosis in the gut microbiome. However, the role of gut bacteria in ethanol effects and how these microorganisms interact with the immune system are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if TLR4 alters the ethanol-induced intestinal inflammatory response, and whether the response of this receptor affects the gut microbiota profile. We analyzed the 16S rRNA sequence of the fecal samples from wild-type (WT) and TLR4-knockout (TLR4-KO) mice with and without ethanol intake for 3 months. The results demonstrated that chronic ethanol consumption reduces microbiota diversity and causes dysbiosis in WT mice. Likewise, ethanol upregulates several inflammatory genes (IL-1β, iNOS, TNF-α) and miRNAs (miR-155-5p, miR-146a-5p) and alters structural and permeability genes (INTL1, CDH1, CFTR) in the colon of WT mice. Our results further demonstrated that TLR4-KO mice exhibit a different microbiota that can protect against the ethanol-induced activation of the immune system and colon integrity dysfunctions. In short, our results reveal that TLR4 is a key factor for determining the gut microbiota, which can participate in dysbiosis and the inflammatory response induced by alcohol consumption.
慢性酒精滥用会导致肠道炎症反应,破坏黏膜和上皮细胞的完整性,同时导致肠道微生物组的失调。然而,肠道细菌在乙醇作用中的作用以及这些微生物与免疫系统的相互作用尚不清楚。本研究旨在评估 TLR4 是否改变乙醇引起的肠道炎症反应,以及该受体的反应是否影响肠道微生物组谱。我们分析了野生型(WT)和 TLR4 敲除(TLR4-KO)小鼠在摄入乙醇 3 个月前后粪便样本的 16S rRNA 序列。结果表明,慢性乙醇消费减少了微生物多样性,并导致 WT 小鼠发生菌群失调。同样,乙醇上调了几种炎症基因(IL-1β、iNOS、TNF-α)和 microRNA(miR-155-5p、miR-146a-5p),并改变了 WT 小鼠结肠中的结构和通透性基因(INTL1、CDH1、CFTR)。我们的结果进一步表明,TLR4-KO 小鼠表现出不同的微生物群,可防止乙醇引起的免疫系统激活和结肠完整性功能障碍。总之,我们的结果表明,TLR4 是决定肠道微生物群的关键因素,它可以参与由饮酒引起的菌群失调和炎症反应。