Inflammatory bowel disease human intestinal myofibroblast-derived extracellular matrix displays enhanced adhesiveness for T cells.
(A) Diagram of the T cell with extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion assay. (B) An increased number of T cells (MOLT4 on the left, peripheral blood T cells in the middle and lamina propria T cells from a CD patient on the right panel) adhered to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) human intestinal myofibroblast (HIMF) derived ECM compared to that from non-IBD control (n = 5, t test). (C) No differences in cell number (left) or produced ECM protein amount (right) between HIMF from normal control (NL), ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) groups were noted during cell culture (n = 5, t test). (D) The adhesiveness of T cells to ECM was increased upon stimulation of NL HIMF with interleukin (IL)-1β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) but decreased with transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 in matrix derived from NL HIMF. T cell to ECM adhesion remained unchanged in IBD HIMF exposed to IL-1β and TNF, but was reduced upon HIMF stimulation with interferon (IFN)-γ and TGF-β1 (n = 5, t test). Representative images of T cells adhering to HIMF derived ECM are shown below. *, p < 0.05, **, p < 0.01, ***, p < 0.001, ****, p < 0.0001.