Establishment and analysis of immune functions of intestinal epithelial cell lines aimed at screening immunity-modulating functional foods

肠道不断暴露于有害和致病微生物以及包括食物抗原在内的膳食物质;因此，肠道具有独特的免疫系统来对抗或科普它们。肠上皮细胞（Intestinalepithelialcells，IEC）位于肠粘膜表面，在调节肠道免疫系统中起重要作用。因此，分析免疫调节药物和功能性食品对IEC免疫功能的影响具有重要意义。本研究尝试建立肠上皮细胞系并对其免疫功能进行分析。我们成功地建立了小鼠胚胎和成年小鼠小肠和大肠上皮细胞系。一些免疫调节分子在小肠和大肠上皮中的表达模式分别对应于小和大IEC系中的表达模式。我们还发现，使用这些IEC系，用鞘氨醇-1-磷酸治疗调节一些细胞因子和趋化因子的mRNA表达和分泌。这些体外模型系统可用于详细分析小肠和大肠上皮细胞的免疫调节功能，并筛选免疫调节药物和功能性食品。

The intestines are constantly exposed to commensal and pathogenic microbes and dietary substances including food antigens ; therefore, intestines have a unique immune system to fight against or to cope with them. Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs), which are located at the surface of intestinal mucosa, play an important role in regulating the intestinal immune system. Thus it would appear that it is important for analysis of the effects of immunity-modulating drugs and functional foods on immune function of IECs. In this work, we try to establish and analyze of immune functions of intestinal epithelial cell lines. We successfully established mouse epithelial cell lines from fetal and adult mouse small and large intestine. Expression pattern of some immune regulatory molecules in small and large intestinal epithelium corresponds to those in small and large IEC lines respectively. We have also found using these IEC lines that treatment with sphingosine-1-phosphate regulates the mRNA expression and secretion of some cytokines and chemokines. These in vitro model systems may prove useful for detailed analysis of the immune regulatory functions of the small and large intestinal epithelia, and for screening immunity-modulating drugs and functional foods.