BIOSS
Centre for Biological Signalling Studies

Brain micro-inflammation at specific vessels dysregulates organ-homeostasis via the activation of a new neural circuit

Arima Y, Ohki T, Nishikawa N, Higuchi K, Ota M, Tanaka Y, Nio-Kobayashi J, Elfeky M, Sakai R, Mori Y, Kawamoto T, Stofkova A, Sakashita Y, Morimoto Y, Kuwatani M, Iwanaga T, Yoshioka Y, Sakamoto N, Yoshimura A, Takiguchi M, Sakoda S, Prinz M, Kamimura D, Murakami M.

Elife. 2017;6. pii: e25517.

Elife.         online article

Impact of stress on diseases including gastrointestinal failure is well-known, but molecular mechanism is not understood. Here we show underlying molecular mechanism using EAE mice. Under stress conditions, EAE caused severe gastrointestinal failure with high-mortality. Mechanistically, autoreactive-pathogenic CD4+ T cells accumulated at specific vessels of boundary area of third-ventricle, thalamus, and dentate-gyrus to establish brain micro-inflammation via stress-gateway reflex. Suppression of the brain micro-inflammation or blockage of these neural pathways inhibited the gastrointestinal failure. These results demonstrate direct link between brain micro-inflammation and fatal gastrointestinal disease via establishment of a new neural pathway under stress.