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. 2019 Mar 20;20(6):1418.
doi: 10.3390/ijms20061418.

Caprate Modulates Intestinal Barrier Function in Porcine Peyer's Patch Follicle-Associated Epithelium

Judith Radloff  1   2 , Valeria Cornelius  3 , Alexander G Markov  4 , Salah Amasheh  5
Affiliations

Caprate Modulates Intestinal Barrier Function in Porcine Peyer's Patch Follicle-Associated Epithelium

Judith Radloff et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Many food components influence intestinal epithelial barrier properties and might therefore also affect susceptibility to the development of food allergies. Such allergies are triggered by increased antibody production initiated in Peyer's patches (PP). Usually, the presentation of antigens in the lumen of the gut to the immune cells of the PP is strongly regulated by the follicle-associated epithelium (FAE) that covers the PP. As the food component caprate has been shown to impede barrier properties in villous epithelium, we hypothesized that caprate also affects the barrier function of the PP FAE, thereby possibly contributing a risk factor for the development of food allergies.

Methods: In this study, we have focused on the effects of caprate on the barrier function of PP, employing in vitro and ex vivo experimental setups to investigate functional and molecular barrier properties. Incubation with caprate induced an increase of transepithelial resistance, and a marked increase of permeability for the paracellular marker fluorescein in porcine PP to 180% of control values. These effects are in accordance with changes in the expression levels of the barrier-forming tight junction proteins tricellulin and claudin-5.

Conclusions: This barrier-affecting mechanism could be involved in the initial steps of a food allergy, since it might trigger unregulated contact of the gut lumen with antigens.

Keywords: claudins; tight junction; tissue barrier; tricellulin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) of IPEC-J2 cell monolayers. Incubation with 5 mM caprate leads to a reversible decrease of TER (** p < 0.01, n = 20).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) and (B) apparent permeability (Papp) of the paracellular flux marker fluorescein in porcine Peyer’s patches (PP). 5 mM caprate lead to markedly higher TER values (* p < 0.05, n = 11–12), and increased permeability for fluorescein (n = 8, * p < 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Immunoblots and (B) densitometry of TJ proteins in PP tissue (control versus caprate). Densitometric analysis of TJ protein signals after caprate incubation reveals the lower expression of tricellulin, whereas stronger expression of claudin-5 can be detected (n = 6–8, * p < 0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Immunohistochemistry. TJ proteins claudin-3 and claudin-5 are detectable as paracellular signals in the surface epithelium in PP tissue (bar: 25 µm).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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