Immunoregulatory role of intestinal surfactant-like particles during Salmonella typhimurium infection

Surfactants like particles (SLP) are secreted by Intestinal epithelium. These particles have the ability to lower surface tension of intestinal epithelial cells and contain small amounts of surfactant specific proteins A, B, and D. In the intestinal lumen they are known to function as lubricants and/or as a vehicle to deliver digestive enzymes to the luminal fluid. These particles have been found to have the ability in binding of uropathogenic E.coli. But their immunological function is not known. The present study was designed to assess the role of the SLP in the regulation of immune response during Salmonella (S) typhimurium infection using a rat an enteric model. The animals were divided in four different groups including control (PBS), rats fed fat diet (corn oil), rats fed fat diet followed with S. typhimurium infection and rats with S. typhimurium infection alone. The Peyer's patches (PP), intraepithelial (IE) and lamina propria (LP) mononuclear cells were isolated from the above-mentioned groups. These mononuclear cells were then incubated in presence of S. typhimurium lysate alone, SLP alone and S. typhimurium lysate and SLP together. T cell markers CD4 and CD8, cytokines mainly pro-inflammatory ones including IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-12 etc were studied under such conditions. In addition histological studies were also carried out under these conditions. We report in this study that SLP plays an important role in modulating the cytokine level during infection. The pro-inflammatory cytokines were found significantly reduced in SLP induced diet along with the infection group compared to the infection group alone. Histopathological studies revealed the breakdown of duodenal villi after infection while only broadening of villi was observed in rats given corn oil induced SLP along with infection. These results suggested an important immuno-modulatory role for SLP during Salmonella infection.