vasoactive-intestinal-peptide and Prediabetic-State

Among several factors known to modulate embryo implantation and survival, uterine quiescence and neovascularization, maternal immunotolerance through the Th1/Th2 cytokine balance towards a Th2 profile, local regulatory T-cell (Treg) activation, and high levels of progesterone were assigned a prominent role. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a neuroimmunopeptide that has anti-inflammatory effects, promotes Th2 cytokines and CD4(+)CD25(+)FOXP3(+) Treg activation, and stimulates exocrine secretion, smooth muscle relaxation, and vasodilatation favoring uterus quiescence. The goal of the present work was to explore the participation of VIP in the implantation sites of normal and pregnant prediabetic nonobese diabetic (NOD) females, a mouse strain that spontaneously develops an autoimmune exocrinopathy similar to Sjögren's syndrome. Our results indicate a reduction in litter size from the third parturition onwards in the NOD female lifespan with increased resorption rates. Progesterone systemic levels were significantly decreased in pregnant NOD mice compared with BALB/c mice, although the allogeneic response to progesterone by spleen cells was not impaired. VIP receptors, Vipr1 and Vipr2 (Vpac1 and Vpac2), were expressed at the implantation sites and VIP induced leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and Treg marker expression in both strains; however, a reduced Vip expression was found in NOD implantation sites. We conclude that the reduced birth rate at 16-week-old NOD mice with a Th1 systemic cytokine profile involves resorption processes with a lower expression of VIP at the sites of implantation, which acts as a local inducer of pro-implantatory LIF and Treg activation.

Topics: Animals; Diabetes, Gestational; Embryo Implantation; Embryo Loss; Female; Immunologic Factors; Litter Size; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred NOD; Prediabetic State; Pregnancy; Receptors, Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide, Type II; Receptors, Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide, Type I; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide

The eyes and urinary bladder of non-diabetic, prediabetic and diabetic Chinese hamsters were evaluated by radioimmunoassay and immunocytochemistry to determine the content and distribution of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The average concentration of VIP was increased in the eyes of all diabetic (pmol/g = 68%, pmol/organ = 50%) and prediabetic (pmol/g = 152%, pmol/organ = 115%) hamsters compared with age-matched non-diabetic animals. Immunocytochemistry showed that the elevation of VIP was primarily related to greater intensity of fluorescence of the nerve fibres in the vasculature of the choroid. The average content of VIP in the urinary bladder was greater in diabetic animals only on the basis of pmol/organ (135%) and in prediabetics on the basis of pmol/g (87%) compared with non-diabetic animals. Qualitative immunocytochemistry suggested that the elevated level of VIP was related to a larger distribution of nerve fibres in the urinary bladder of diabetic hamsters. The high level of VIP in the eyes and urinary bladder of diabetic and prediabetic hamsters is an interesting observation which should receive further study to determine whether it is an aetiological agent underlying the pathogenesis of ophthalmic complications and neurogenic bladder or the result of some pathological process which affects these organs.

Topics: 3-Hydroxybutyric Acid; Animals; Blood Glucose; Body Weight; Cricetinae; Cricetulus; Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental; Eye; Female; Hydroxybutyrates; Male; Organ Size; Prediabetic State; Urinary Bladder; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide