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

肠道不断暴露于共生微生物和致病微生物以及包括食物抗原在内的膳食物质；因此，肠道有一个独特的免疫系统来对抗或应对它们。肠上皮细胞（IECs）位于肠黏膜表面，在调节肠道免疫系统中起着重要作用。因此，分析免疫调节药物和功能食品对IECs免疫功能的影响具有重要意义。在这项工作中，我们试图建立和分析肠道上皮细胞系的免疫功能。我们成功地从胎鼠和成年鼠小肠和大肠中建立了小鼠上皮细胞系。小肠上皮和大肠上皮中部分免疫调节分子的表达模式分别与小肠上皮和大肠上皮相对应。我们还发现，使用这些IEC细胞系，鞘氨醇-1-磷酸处理可以调节mRNA的表达和一些细胞因子和趋化因子的分泌。这些体外模型系统可能有助于详细分析小肠和大肠上皮的免疫调节功能，以及筛选免疫调节药物和功能食品。

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.