Chiwakata C B, Hort G, Hemmer C J, Dietrich M
Department of Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.
Infect Immun. 1996 Dec;64(12):5106-10. doi: 10.1128/iai.64.12.5106-5110.1996.
Substance P is a pluripotent neuropeptide capable of inducing neurogenic inflammation, immunoregulation, and vasodilatation. In an effort to contribute to the understanding of the pathophysiology of cerebral malaria, we have evaluated the effects of sera obtained from patients suffering from severe or mild malaria and from a healthy donor with no previous history of exposure to malaria on the expression of the substance P gene by cultured human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) and human umbilical-vein endothelial cells. PCR, Southern blotting, hybridization with an internal probe, and densitometry demonstrated that treatment of HBMEC with sera from patients with severe malaria caused remarkably increased expression of the substance P gene. In HBMEC, substance P was not significantly influenced by serum from a healthy donor. Substance P was expressed at almost undetectable levels in untreated HBMEC. Treatment of cultured human umbilical-vein endothelial cells with the same sera produced no signal. The influence of different sera on the expression of substance P by HBMEC suggests that substance P expression may be involved in events leading to the development of severe malaria.
P物质是一种多能神经肽，能够引发神经源性炎症、免疫调节和血管舒张。为了有助于理解脑型疟疾的病理生理学，我们评估了来自患有严重或轻度疟疾的患者以及无疟疾接触史的健康供体的血清，对培养的人脑微血管内皮细胞（HBMEC）和人脐静脉内皮细胞中P物质基因表达的影响。聚合酶链反应（PCR）、Southern印迹法、与内部探针杂交以及光密度测定表明，用严重疟疾患者的血清处理HBMEC会导致P物质基因的表达显著增加。在HBMEC中，健康供体的血清对P物质没有显著影响。在未处理的HBMEC中，P物质几乎以不可检测的水平表达。用相同血清处理培养的人脐静脉内皮细胞未产生信号。不同血清对HBMEC中P物质表达的影响表明，P物质表达可能参与了导致严重疟疾发展的事件。
