While bidirectional brain–gut interactions are well known mechanisms for the regulation of gut function in both healthy and diseased states, a role of the enteric flora—including both commensal and pathogenic organisms—in these interactions has only been recognized in the past few years. The brain can influence commensal organisms (enteric microbiota) indirectly, via changes in gastrointestinal motility and secretion, and intestinal permeability, or directly, via signaling molecules released into the gut lumen from cells in the lamina propria (enterochromaffin cells, neurons, immune cells). Communication from enteric microbiota to the host can occur via multiple mechanisms, including epithelial-cell, receptor-mediated signaling and, when intestinal permeability is increased, through direct stimulation of host cells in the lamina propria. Enterochromaffin cells are important bidirectional transducers that regulate communication between the gut lumen and the nervous system. Vagal, afferent innervation of enterochromaffin cells provides a direct pathway for enterochromaffin-cell signaling to neuronal circuits, which may have an important role in pain and immune-response modulation, control of background emotions and other homeostatic functions. Disruption of the bidirectional interactions between the enteric microbiota and the nervous system may be involved in the pathophysiology of acute and chronic gastrointestinal disease states, including functional and inflammatory bowel disorders.

Lin28A and Lin28B selectively block the expression of let-7 microRNAs and function as oncogenes in a variety of human cancers. Lin28A recruits a TUTase (Zcchc11/TUTase4) to let-7 precursors to block processing by Dicer in the cell cytoplasm. Here we find that unlike Lin28A, Lin28B represses let-7 processing through a TUTase-independent mechanism. Lin28B functions in the nucleus by sequestering primary let-7 transcripts and inhibiting their processing by the Microprocessor. The inhibitory effects of Zcchc11 depletion on the tumorigenic capacity and metastatic potential of human cancer cells and xenografts is restricted to Lin28A-expressing tumors. Furthermore, the majority of human colon and breast tumors analyzed exclusively express either Lin28A or Lin28B. Lin28A is expressed in HER2-overexpressing breast tumors while Lin28B expression characterizes triple-negative breast tumors. Overall our results illuminate the distinct mechanisms by which Lin28A and Lin28B function, and have implications for the development of new strategies for cancer therapy.

The tachykinins, exemplified by substance P, are one of the most intensively studied neuropeptide families. They comprise a series of structurally related peptides that derive from alternate processing of three Tac genes and are expressed throughout the nervous and immune systems. Tachykinins interact with three neurokinin G protein-coupled receptors. The signaling, trafficking, and regulation of neurokinin receptors have also been topics of intense study. Tachykinins participate in important physiological processes in the nervous, immune, gastrointestinal, respiratory, urogenital, and dermal systems, including inflammation, nociception, smooth muscle contractility, epithelial secretion, and proliferation. They contribute to multiple diseases processes, including acute and chronic inflammation and pain, fibrosis, affective and addictive disorders, functional disorders of the intestine and urinary bladder, infection, and cancer. Neurokinin receptor antagonists are selective, potent, and show efficacy in models of disease. In clinical trials there is a singular success: neurokinin 1 receptor antagonists to treat nausea and vomiting. New information about the involvement of tachykinins in infection, fibrosis, and pruritus justifies further trials. A deeper understanding of disease mechanisms is required for the development of more predictive experimental models, and for the design and interpretation of clinical trials. Knowledge of neurokinin receptor structure, and the development of targeting strategies to disrupt disease-relevant subcellular signaling of neurokinin receptors, may refine the next generation of neurokinin receptor antagonists.

Fat distribution is closely linked to metabolic disease risk. Distribution varies with sex, genetic background, disease state, certain drugs and hormones, development, and aging. Preadipocyte replication and differentiation, developmental gene expression, susceptibility to apoptosis and cellular senescence, vascularity, inflammatory cell infiltration, and adipokine secretion vary among depots, as do fatty-acid handling and mechanisms of enlargement with positive-energy and loss with negative-energy balance. How interdepot differences in these molecular, cellular, and pathophysiological properties are related is incompletely understood. Whether fat redistribution causes metabolic disease or whether it is a marker of underlying processes that are primarily responsible is an open question.

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Chronic stress plays an important role in the development and exacerbation of symptoms in functional gastrointestinal disorders. To better understand the mechanisms underlying this relationship, we aimed to characterize changes in visceral and somatic nociception, colonic motility, anxiety-related behavior, and mucosal immune activation in rats exposed to 10 days of chronic psychological stress. Male Wistar rats were submitted daily to either 1-h water avoidance (WA) stress or sham WA for 10 consecutive days. The visceromotor response to colorectal distension, thermal somatic nociception, and behavioral responses to an open field test were measured at baseline and after chronic WA. Fecal pellets were counted after each WA stress or sham WA session as a measure of stress-induced colonic motility. Colonic samples were collected from both groups and evaluated for structural changes and neutrophil infiltration, mast cell number by immunohistochemistry, and cytokine expression by quantitative RT-PCR. Rats exposed to chronic WA (but not sham stress) developed persistent visceral hyperalgesia, whereas only transient changes in somatic nociception were observed. Chronically stressed rats also exhibited anxiety-like behaviors, enhanced fecal pellet excretion, and small but significant increases in the mast cell numbers and the expression of IL-1beta and IFN-gamma. Visceral hyperalgesia following chronic stress persisted for at least a month. Chronic psychological stress in rats results in a robust and long-lasting alteration of visceral, but not somatic nociception. Visceral hyperalgesia is associated with other behavioral manifestations of stress sensitization but was only associated with minor colonic immune activation arguing against a primary role of mucosal immune activation in the maintenance of this phenomenon.

Anatomically separate fat depots differ in size, function, and contribution to pathological states, such as the metabolic syndrome. We isolated preadipocytes from different human fat depots to determine whether the basis for this variation is partly attributable to differences in inherent properties of fat cell progenitors. We found that genome-wide expression profiles of primary preadipocytes cultured in parallel from abdominal subcutaneous, mesenteric, and omental fat depots were distinct. Interestingly, visceral fat was not homogeneous. Preadipocytes from one of the two main visceral depots, mesenteric fat, had an expression profile closer to that of subcutaneous than omental preadipocytes, the other main visceral depot. Expression of genes that regulate early development, including homeotic genes, differed extensively among undifferentiated preadipocytes isolated from different fat depots. These profiles were confirmed by real-time PCR analysis of preadipocytes from additional lean and obese male and female subjects. We made preadipocyte strains from single abdominal subcutaneous and omental preadipocytes by expressing telomerase. Depot-specific developmental gene expression profiles persisted for 40 population doublings in these strains. Thus, human fat cell progenitors from different regions are effectively distinct, consistent with different fat depots being separate mini-organs.

Substance P, acting via the neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R), plays an important role in mediating a variety of inf lammatory processes. However, its role in acute pancreatitis has not been previously described. We have found that, in normal mice, substance P levels in the pancreas and pancreatic acinar cell expression of NK1R are both increased during secretagogue-induced experimental pancreatitis. To evaluate the role of substance P, pancreatitis was induced in mice that genetically lack NK1R by administration of 12 hourly injections of a supramaximally stimulating dose of the secretagogue caerulein. During pancreatitis, the magnitude of hyperamylasemia, hyperlipasemia, neutrophil sequestration in the pancreas, and pancreatic acinar cell necrosis were significantly reduced in NK1R؊͞؊ mice when compared with wild-type NK1R؉͞؉ animals. Similarly, pancreatitisassociated lung injury, as characterized by intrapulmonary sequestration of neutrophils and increased pulmonary microvascular permeability, was reduced in NK1R؊͞؊ animals. These effects of NK1R deletion indicate that substance P, acting via NK1R, plays an important proinf lammatory role in regulating the severity of acute pancreatitis and pancreatitisassociated lung injury.The neuropeptide substance P has been shown to play an important role in asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, and other inflammatory processes (1, 2). Subsequent to its release from nerve endings, substance P binds to neurokinin 1 receptors (NK1R) on effector cells, increases microvascular permeability, and promotes plasma extravasation from the intravascular to the extravascular space. Although pancreatic acinar cells are known to express NK1R and substance P has been detected within the pancreas (3-5), apparently no studies have been reported that have examined the possibility that this neuropeptide might play a role in the evolution of a pancreatic inflammatory disease such as acute pancreatitis. We have found that pancreatic levels of substance P and the expression of NK1R on pancreatic acinar cells are increased during experimental acute pancreatitis. We have also found that genetic deletion of NK1R reduces the severity of pancreatitis and pancreatitis-associated lung injury. These observations indicate that substance P, acting through NK1R, plays an important proinflammatory role in regulating the severity of acute pancreatitis and associated lung injury. MATERIALS AND METHODSAll experiments were performed according to protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Beth Israel Hospital. Breeding pairs of NK1R-deficient mice were generated as described (6), and the identity of their offspring as NK1R-deficient (Ϫ͞Ϫ) homozygotes was confirmed by Southern blotting (6). Animals were bred and housed in standard shoe box cages in a climate-controlled room with an ambient temperature of 23 Ϯ 2°C and a 12-h light͞12-h dark cycle. They were fed standard laboratory chow, given water ad libitum, randomly assigned to control or experimental groups, and...