Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN), Napoli, Italy.
Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, National Research Council (CNR), Napoli, Italy.
Front Immunol. 2023 May 29;14:1176982. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1176982. eCollection 2023.
In addition to circulating haemocytes, the immune system of the solitary ascidian relies on two organs, the pharynx and the gut, and encompasses a wide array of immune and stress-related genes. How the pharynx and the gut of react and adapt to environmental stress was assessed upon short or long exposure to hypoxia/starvation in the absence or in the presence of polystyrene nanoplastics. We show that the immune response to stress is very different between the two organs, suggesting an organ-specific immune adaptation to the environmental changes. Notably, the presence of nanoplastics appears to alter the gene modulation induced by hypoxia/starvation in both organs, resulting in a partial increase in gene up-regulation in the pharynx and a less evident response to stress in the gut. We have also assessed whether the hypoxia/starvation stress could induce innate memory, measured as gene expression in response to a subsequent challenge with the bacterial agent LPS. Exposure to stress one week before challenge induced a substantial change in the response to LPS, with a general decrease of gene expression in the pharynx and a strong increase in the gut. Co-exposure with nanoplastics only partially modulated the stress-induced memory response to LPS, without substantially changing the stress-dependent gene expression profile in either organ. Overall, the presence of nanoplastics in the marine environment seems able to decrease the immune response of to stressful conditions, hypothetically implying a reduced capacity to adapt to environmental changes, but only partially affects the stress-dependent induction of innate memory and subsequent responses to infectious challenges.
除了循环血细胞外， 的免疫系统还依赖于两个器官，即咽和肠道，并且包含广泛的免疫和应激相关基因。 在缺氧/饥饿的短期或长期暴露下，评估咽和肠道如何对环境应激做出反应和适应，无论是否存在聚苯乙烯纳米塑料。 我们表明，两个器官对应激的免疫反应非常不同，表明对环境变化的器官特异性免疫适应。 值得注意的是，纳米塑料的存在似乎改变了缺氧/饥饿在两个器官中诱导的基因调节，导致咽中基因上调的部分增加，而肠道对应激的反应不那么明显。 我们还评估了缺氧/饥饿应激是否会诱导先天记忆，即细菌剂 LPS 刺激后的基因表达。 在挑战前一周暴露于应激会导致对 LPS 的反应发生实质性变化，咽中的基因表达普遍下降，而肠道中的基因表达则强烈增加。 与纳米塑料共同暴露仅部分调节了 LPS 诱导的应激记忆反应，而不会改变两个器官中应激依赖性基因表达谱。 总体而言，海洋环境中纳米塑料的存在似乎能够降低 对应激条件的免疫反应，假设这意味着其适应环境变化的能力降低，但仅部分影响应激诱导的先天记忆和随后对感染性挑战的反应。
