Neurotensin (NT), a neuropeptide released in the gastrointestinal tract in response to several stimuli, is involved in the pathophysiology of colonic inflammation. However, the molecular mechanism(s) mediating this proinflammatory response remains unclear. We found that NCM460, non-transformed human colonocytes, express a functional high affinity NT receptor that mediates NT-induced Erk activation. By using NCM460 cells stably transfected with NTR1, we show that NTR1 activation leads to interleukin (IL)-8 secretion that is mediated via both NF-B-and Erk-dependent pathways. In addition, NT-stimulated NF-B activation is dependent on intracellular calcium release. NT-stimulated Erk activity requires Ras activation because overexpression of the dominant negative Ras mutant Ras-17N almost completely inhibits the Erk activation. Furthermore, NT directly stimulates Ras-GTP formation as shown by a Ras-GTP pull-down assay. By using reporter gene constructs containing targeted substitutions in the IL-8 promoter, we show that the NF-B, AP-1, and to a lesser degree the C/EBP sites in the IL-8 promoter region are required for IL-8 gene expression induced by NT. In summary, our results demonstrate that NT stimulates calcium-dependent NF-B and Ras-dependent Erk pathways that mediate the release of IL-8 from non-transformed human colonocytes. We speculate that these NT-related proinflammatory pathways are important in the pathophysiology of colonic inflammation.Neurotensin (NT), 1 a 13-amino acid neuropeptide originally isolated by Carraway and Leeman (1), is highly expressed in the gastrointestinal tract (2). In the ileal mucosa NT is synthesized and secreted by specific endocrine cells (3), in response to diverse stimuli (4). NT increases small bowel, colonic, and gastric motility and stimulates ileal, pancreatic, and biliary secretion (4, 5) as well as Cl Ϫ secretion from human colonic mucosa (6), indicating that this peptide may contribute to the pathophysiology of human diarrhea. NT also stimulates growth of the intestinal mucosa under physiological and pathological conditions and causes proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells in vivo and in vitro (7-11). Two G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have been described for NT, a high affinity (NTR1) and a low affinity (NTR2) receptor (12). Administration of the specific NTR1 antagonist SR 48692 to rats inhibits colonic mucin and prostaglandin E 2 secretion in response to immobilization stress (13), suggesting the importance of NTR1 in stress-mediated colonic responses. Our recent studies (14) demonstrate that NT is a proinflammatory peptide in the colon because blockage of the NT-NTR1 interaction with SR 48692 inhibited colonic secretion and inflammation mediated by Clostridium difficile toxin A. We also showed that, compared with normal colonic epithelial cells, there was a dramatic up-regulation of NTR1 during human colonic inflammation (15) as well as in Clostridium difficile toxin A-mediated colitis (14). NT exerts its proinflammatory effects by interacting with severa...

Interaction of the neuropeptide substance P (SP) and its neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of intestinal inflammation. SP is known to stimulate production of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 in the U-373-MG human astrocytoma cell line via activation of p38 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) and nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB, respectively. However, the signalling mechanisms by which SP-NK-1R interaction induces NF-kappaB activation and IL-8 expression are still not clear. In this study we demonstrate that SP stimulates IL-8 secretion and IL-8 promoter activity in the NCM460 non-transformed human colonic epithelial cell line transfected with NK-1R cDNA. Our results indicate that inhibition of endogenous Rho family proteins (RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42) by their respective dominant negative mutants significantly decreases SP-induced IL-8 secretion and IL-8 promoter activity. We also demonstrate that SP rapidly activates RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42 and that co-expression of the dominant negative mutants of RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42 in NK-1R cDNA-transfected NCM460 cells significantly inhibits SP-induced NF-kappaB-dependent gene expression. These results demonstrate that Rho family small GTPases RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42 are novel signal transducers for SP-stimulated IL-8 expression.

Neurotensin (NT), a neuropeptide highly expressed in the gastrointestinal tract, participates in the pathophysiology of intestinal inflammation. We recently showed that NT stimulates interleukin-8 (IL-8) expression in NCM460 nontransformed human colonic epithelial cells via both mitogen-activating protein kinase (MAPK)- and NF-kappaB-dependent pathways. However, the molecular mechanism by which NT induces expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-8 has not been investigated. In this study we show that inhibition of endogenous Rho family proteins (RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42) by their respective dominant negative mutants inhibits NT-induced IL-8 protein production and promoter activity. Western blot experiments demonstrated that NT strongly activated RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42. Overexpression of the dominant negative mutants of RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 significantly inhibited NT-induced NF-kappaB-dependent reporter gene expression and NF-kappaB DNA binding activity. NT also stimulated p38 MAPK phosphorylation, and overexpression of dominant negative mutants of RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 did not significantly alter p38 and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in response to NT. Together, our findings indicate that NT-stimulated IL-8 expression is mediated via a Rho-dependent NF-kappaB-mediated pathway.