星形胶质细胞是脑中数量最多的细胞，被认为对脑中的神经细胞起着重要的营养和支撑作用。脑中有细菌感染时，小胶质细胞可以发挥类似于巨噬细胞的作用，迁移到感染区域并杀灭入侵的细菌。但脑中数量最多的星形胶质细胞在发挥营养和支撑作用的同时，是否在抵抗细菌入侵方面起到第一道防线的作用，以及相关的机制还不太清楚。
营养科学研究所夏宇蕾在翟琦巍研究员指导下研究发现星形胶质细胞本身具有抗菌作用，并且这种作用可以被白细胞介素1β等显著增强。进一步的研究表明，白细胞介素1β是通过激活NF-κB促进抗菌因子释放到细胞外而发挥作用的。该研究结果揭示了星形胶质细胞具有可以被炎症因子所调控的抗菌作用，对于深入了解星形胶质细胞的生物学功能具有重要意义。该研究结果近日在胶质细胞的专业杂志Glia上在线发表(DOI: 10.1002/glia.20921)。
该研究项目获得了基金委、科技部、中科院以及上海生科院等的资助。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Glia DOI:10.1002/glia.20921
IL-1β enhances the antibacterial activity of astrocytes by activation of NF-κB
Yulei Xia, Qiwei Zhai *
Key Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Astrocytes have important immune functions in CNS, and astrocytes stimulated by interferon- were showed to have direct antimicrobial function. However whether astrocytes without the stimulation of cytokines have antibacterial function, and how this function is regulated are still largely unknown. In this study, we found that primary cultured astrocytes inhibited the growth of both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Further more, we showed that interleukin-1β (IL-1β) enhanced the antibacterial effect in a dose-dependent manner, and the antibacterial effect of astrocytes from IL-1β receptor-deficient mice failed to be enhanced by IL-1β. IL-1β stimulated IB degradation, NF-κB nuclear translocation, and transactivation in astrocytes. NF-κB inhibitors blocked NF-B activation and the enhanced antibacterial effect induced by IL-1β. In addition, overexpression of dominant negative IB in astrocytes inhibited IB degradation and NF-B transactivation, and also inhibited the enhanced antibacterial effect induced by IL-1β. All these data demonstrated that IL-1β enhanced the antibacterial activity of astrocytes by activation of NF-κB.
