Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Anna Stanton, Dr Catherine Mowbray, Marcelo Lanz, Dr Karen Brown, Paul Hilton, Professor Alison Tyson-Capper, Rob Pickard, Ased Ali, Dr Judith HallORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2020, The Author(s).The female climacteric or menopausal process characterised by reduced estrogen, associates with an increased risk of recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) linked to uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). Clinically, topical vaginal estrogen treatment has a prophylactic effect against such infections. The aim of this study was to investigate, in vitro, the effects of a topical estrogen treatment on vaginal epithelial responses following challenge with E.coli flagellin mimicking an UPEC challenge. Immortalised vaginal epithelial cells (VK2 E6/E7), modelling the vaginal epithelium were treated with either 4 nM 17β-estradiol (E) for seven days, 50 ng/ml E.coli flagellin (F) for 12 h, or 4 nM 17β-estradiol plus 50 ng/ml flagellin (E + F(12 h)). RNA was analysed by microarray gene profiling using the Illumina HumanHT-12 v 4 Expression Beadchip. Following E + F treatments expression of genes encoding host defence molecules including DEFβ4A, DEFB103A, LCN2 as well as those associated with keratinisation eg CNFN and SPRR family genes were significantly enhanced (P < 0.05) compared to either E or F treatments alone. Mutation of estrogen responsive elements (EREs) identified in the DEFβ4 gene promoter abolished the augmented gene expression suggesting estrogen functioned directly through a regulatory mechanism involving ESR1/2. Ingenuity pathway analyses also suggested the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-17A to regulate the vaginal host defences during infection. Pre-treating VK2 E6/E7 cells with estrogen (4 nM) and challenging with 1L-17A & F (12 h) significantly enhanced DEFβ4, DEF103A and S100A7 expression (P < 0.05). Origins of vaginal IL-17 in vivo remain unclear, but patient biopsies support γδ T cells located within the vaginal epithelium. These data suggest that the vaginal antimicrobial response induced by flagellin activation of Toll-like Receptor 5 cell signalling is augmented following topical estrogen application.
Author(s): Stanton A, Mowbray C, Lanz M, Brown K, Hilton P, Tyson-Capper A, Pickard RS, Ali ASM, Hall J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Scientific Reports
Year: 2020
Volume: 10
Issue: 1
Online publication date: 21/05/2020
Acceptance date: 10/04/2020
Date deposited: 01/06/2020
ISSN (electronic): 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Research
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64291-y
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64291-y
PubMed id: 32439855
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
