肠屏障在体内平衡中起着至关重要的作用,通过促进营养和液体的吸收,并提供紧密的屏障以防止病原体或共生微生物的入侵。肠屏障功能障碍与全身性炎症有关,氧化应激,胰岛素敏感性下降,这可能会导致其他组织的失调。因此,对与屏障功能增强相关的生理方面的更深入理解具有重要的科学和临床意义。裸鼹鼠有许多不同寻常的生物学特征,包括结肠神经元对酸和缓激肽的敏感性减弱,和对化学诱导的肠道损伤的抵抗力。然而,对他们的肠道屏障生理机能的了解很少。这里,我们观察到裸mole鼠和小鼠之间肠道组织结构的宏观和微观差异。此外,裸mole鼠显示较大的杯状细胞数量增加,粘液含量升高。在测量肠道通透性时,与小鼠相比,裸mole鼠的通透性降低,测量为跨上皮电阻,尤其是回肠.此外,5-羟色胺诱导的肠离子分泌,缓激肽,组胺,与小鼠相比,裸鼹鼠的辣椒素显著减少,尽管所有这些激动剂的受体表达。此外,裸mole鼠对非选择性腺苷酸环化酶激活剂Forskolin的促分泌反应降低。总的来说,这些发现表明,裸鼹鼠具有强大的和难以穿透的胃肠屏障,对环境和内源性刺激物具有抗性。因此,裸mole鼠可以提供对肠屏障生理学的有价值的见解,并为开发创新和有效的疗法奠定基础。
The intestinal barrier plays a crucial role in homeostasis by both facilitating the absorption of nutrients and fluids and providing a tight shield to prevent the invasion by either pathogen or commensal microorganisms. Intestinal barrier malfunction is associated with systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, and decreased insulin sensitivity, which may lead to the dysregulation of other tissues. Therefore, a deeper understanding of physiological aspects related to an enhanced barrier function is of significant scientific and clinical relevance. The naked mole-rat has many unusual biological features, including attenuated colonic neuron sensitivity to acid and bradykinin and resistance to chemical-induced intestinal damage. However, insight into their intestinal barrier physiology is scarce. Here, we observed notable macroscopic and microscopic differences in intestinal tissue structure between naked mole-rats and mice. Moreover, naked mole-rats showed increased number of larger goblet cells and elevated mucus content. In measuring gut permeability, naked mole-rats showed reduced permeability compared with mice, measured as transepithelial electrical resistance, especially in ileum. Furthermore, intestinal ion secretion induced by serotonin, bradykinin, histamine, and capsaicin was significantly reduced in naked mole-rats compared with mice, despite the expression of receptors for all these agonists. In addition, naked mole-rats exhibited reduced prosecretory responses to the nonselective adenylate cyclase activator forskolin. Collectively, these findings indicate that naked mole-rats possess a robust and hard-to-penetrate gastrointestinal barrier that is resistant to environmental and endogenous irritants. Naked mole-rats may therefore provide valuable insights into the physiology of the intestinal barrier and set the stage for the development of innovative and effective therapies.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first study to characterize the intestinal function of naked mole-rats. We found that these animals show a robust gut tissue structure, displaying thicker intestinal layers, longer villi, and larger crypts. Naked mole-rats showed more and larger goblet cells, with increased mucus content. Intestinal permeability, especially in the ileum, was substantially lower than that of mice. Finally, naked mole-rats showed reduced intestinal anion secretion in response to serotonin, bradykinin, histamine, capsaicin, and forskolin.