Relationship between intestinal fatty acid-binding protein expression and necrotizing enterocolitis in neonatal rat model / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the role of intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP) expression in a neonatal rat model of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).Methods A total of 24 newborn rats were randomly divided into two groupscontrol group (n=6) and NEC group (n=18).Rats in the NEC group were fed with formula and experienced hypoxia,reoxygenation,cold stress and sequentially Lipopolysaccharide (10 mg/kg) lavage for three consecutive days to establish NEC model,after which were respectively sacrificed on day 1,2 and 3 (six for each day).Those in the control group were all sacrificed on day 3.Ileocecal tissues were collected for morphological and histological analysis.I-FABP expression was detected using Western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC).One-way analysis of variance,LSD-t test,Kruskal-Wallis H test,Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson's correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis.Results The NEC model (intestinal pathological score ≥ 2) was established successfully without causing death.Compared with the control group,the NEC group showed less body weight gain [M (P25-P75)1.00 (0.48-1.35) vs 1.74 (1.62-1.86),1.25 (0.75-1.40) vs 2.61 (2.53-2.99),1.35 (0.88-1.48) vs 3.60 (3.48-3.73);Z=-2.898,-2.903,-2.892;all P＜0.05] and higher intestinal pathological scores [(2 (2-3),3 (2-3),4 (3-4) vs 0 (0-1);all P＜0.05] on day 1,2 and 3.The intestinal pathological score on day 3 was significantly higher than that on day 2 and day 1 (both P＜0.05).Expression of I-FABP and the number of I-FABP positive enterocytes in the NEC model group were increased compared with those in the control group [Western blot0.179 (0.179-0.186),0.231 (0.211-0.245),0.202 (0.192-0.225) vs 0.091 (0.086-0.093);IHC59 (55-60),80 (83-86),80 (84-88) vs 44 (39-47);all P＜0.05].Moreover,the expression of I-FABP protein and the number of I-FABP positive enterocytes on day 2 and day 3 were significantly higher than those on day 1 (all P＜0.05).I-FABP expression was positively associated with intestinal pathological score (Western blotr=0.932,95％CI0.872-0.969;IHCr=0.709,95％CI0.484-0.872).Conclusions I-FABP is an efficient marker for NEC and correlates with the severity of intestinal injury.