Intestinal dendritic cells change in number in fulminant hepatic failure

AIM: To investigate the change in intestinal dendritic cell (DC) number in fulminant hepatic failure (FHF). METHODS: An animal model of FHF was created. Intestinal CD11b/c was detected by immunohisto-chemistry and Western blot. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect intestinal integrin-alpha mRNA expression. Intestinal CD83, CD86, CD74, CD3 and AKT were detected by immunohistochemistry, Western blot and PCR. Phosphorylated-AKT (p-AKT) was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. RESULTS: In the FHF group [D-galactosamine (D-Galn) + lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group], the mice began to die after 6 h; conversely, in the D-Galn and LPS groups, the activity of mice was poor, but there were no deaths. Immunohistochemistry results showed that in FHF, the expression of CD11b/c (7988400 +/- 385941 vs 1102400 +/- 132273, P < 0.05), CD83 (13875000 +/- 467493 vs 9257600 +/- 400364, P < 0.05), CD86 (7988400 +/- 385941 vs 1102400 +/- 13227, P < 0.05) and CD74 (11056000 +/- 431427 vs 4633400 +/- 267903, P < 0.05) was significantly increased compared with the normal saline (NS) group. Compared with the NS group, the protein expression of CD11b/c (5.4817 +/- 0.77 vs 1.4073 +/- 0.37, P < 0.05) and CD86 (4.2673 +/- 0.69 vs 1.1379 +/- 0.42, P < 0.05) was significantly increased. Itg-alpha (1.1224 +/- 0.3 vs 0.4907 +/- 0.19, P < 0.05), CD83 (3.6986 +/- 0.40 vs 1.0762 +/- 0.22, P < 0.05) and CD86 (1.5801 +/- 0.32 vs 0.8846 +/- 0.10, P < 0.05) mRNA expression was increased significantly in the FHF group. At the protein level, expression of CD74 in the FHF group (2.3513 +/- 0.52) was significantly increased compared with the NS group (1.1298 +/- 0.33), whereas in the LPS group (2.3891 +/- 0.47), the level of CD74 was the highest (P < 0.05). At the gene level, the relative expression of CD74 mRNA in the FHF group (1.5383 +/- 0.26) was also significantly increased in comparison to the NS group (0.7648 +/- 0.22; P < 0.05). CD3 expression was the highest in the FHF group (P < 0.05). In the FHF, LPS and D-Galn groups, the expression of AKT at the protein and mRNA levels was elevated compared with the NS group, but there was no statistical significance (P > 0.05). The p-AKT protein expression in the FHF (1.54 +/- 0.06), LPS (1.56 +/- 0.05) and D-Galn (1.29 +/- 0.03) groups was higher than that in the NS group (1.07 +/- 0.03) (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In FHF, a large number of DCs mature, express CD86, and activate MHC class. molecular pathways to induce a T cell response, and the AKT pathway is activated.