Effect of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion on expression of occludin and claudin-2 in rat ileum mucosa / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have found that chronic cerebral hypoperfusion can cause changes in the intestinal mucosal barrier in rats, and Occludin and Claudin are important components of the intestinal mucosal barrier.OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion on the ileum mucosal barrier. METHODS: Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham operation (sham) group and chronic cerebral hypoperfusion model group. Animal model of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion was built by permanent bilateral common carotid artery ligation. The bilateral common carotid arteries of the sham group were isolated without ligation. The animals were killed at 4 weeks after operation, and their ileums were isolated for morphological observation and pathological scoring using hematoxylin-eosin staining. Apoptosis in the ileum cells was detected using TUNEL. Western blot was used to detect the expression of Claudin-2 and Occludin. immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of Occludin. The study protocol was approved by the Animal Experiment Ethics Committee of General Hospital of Western Theater Command. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared with the sham group, hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that the ileum in the model group did not develop obvious injury with no higher pathological scores (P > 0.05). Western blot results indicated that compared with the sham group, the expression of claudin-2 was increased in the ileum tissue of the rats with chronic cerebral hypoperfusion, while the expression of Occludin was decreased (P < 0.05). TUNEL fluorescence staining showed that the apoptotic rate in the model group was significantly increased compared with the sham group (P < 0.05). Immunohistochemical results showed that the expression of Occludin in the ileum tissue of the chronic cerebral hypoperfusion group was significantly reduced (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that chronic cerebral hypoperfusion may damage the intestinal mucosal barrier by downregulating Occludin expression and upregulating Claudin-2 expression.