Tilbake til søkeresultatene

MATPROG-Matprogrammet: Norsk mat fra sjø og land

The digestive tract and human health. Effects of probiotics and polyunsaturated fatty acids on intestinal epithelium and immune function.

Tildelt: kr 3,9 mill.

This project will address two different questions related to food and health: 1)Do probiotic microorganisms mediate their health-promoting effects by interacting with the intestinal epithelium in a way that differs from non-probiotic microorganisms and ot her commensals? 2)Do dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids influence the responsiveness of the intestinal epithelium to microbial stimuli and thus contribute to shaping the communication network between commensals in the gut lumen and gut associated lymphoi d tissue? These issues will be studied using advanced cell culture techniques combined with selected methods from the fields of molecular biology, protein chemistry, proteomics and immunology. In the first part of the project we will establish the steady state transcriptome of selected epithelial cell lines. Then comparative gene expression studies will be carried out on cells stimulated with selected probiotic microorganisms and their control organisms. Data will be subjected to statistical analysis usin g established algorithms to identify differently expressed genes and subsets of genes with similar expression patterns. We will then screen the functional response of the cell lines to the different stimuli by characterizing their profile of secreted chem okines, cytokines and prostanoids. Further information about the cellular response to microbial stimuli will be obtained by employing a multiplex flowcytometric immunoassay using phosphospecific antibodies directed aactivated forms of intracellular signal ling molecules. These data will be correlated with gene expression data to identify signalling pathways involved in relaying information from the gut lumen to the submucosa. Detailed studies of interacting signal transduction pathways will also be carried out. If data are obtained suggesting specific regulatory effects of probiotic bacteria we will identify and characterize the bacterial surface structures involved by a differential proteomics approach.

Budsjettformål:

MATPROG-Matprogrammet: Norsk mat fra sjø og land