Deficiency of receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) attenuates inflammation and organ injury in neonatal sepsis
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Read the article on jpedsurg.org ↗Article · Dec 2017 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Study demonstrates that receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) drives excessive inflammation in neonatal sepsis. RIPK3-deficient newborn mice showed significantly reduced cytokine levels, lung injury, and organ damage compared to wild-type mice, suggesting RIPK3 as a potential therapeutic target for attenuating sepsis-related inflammation in neonates.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Introduction
Sepsis is the third leading cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Sepsis in neonates is characterized as the systemic inflammation owing to infection within the first 28days after birth. The molecular mechanism causing the exaggerated inflammation phenotype in neonates has not been completely elucidated. Receptor interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) is a protein identified as a mediator in programmed necrosis or necroptosis. We hypothesize that RIPK3 could be responsible for the inflammatory response in neonates and that deficiency in the RIPK3 protein attenuates inflammation and organ injury in neonatal sepsis.
Methods
Male and female C57BL6 wild-type (WT) and RIPK3 knock-out (KO) newborn mice aged 5–7days (3–4g body weight) were injected intraperitoneally with 0.9mg/g cecal slurry (CS). At 10h after injection, the newborns were euthanized and blood, the lungs and gut tissues were collected.
Results
At 10h after CS injection, serum cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β in the WT mice were increased by 511- and 43-fold whereas in KO mice, these levels were increased by 166-fold and 22-fold, respectively. Lung IL-1β in the WT mice increased by 7-fold after CS injection whereas only a 4-fold increase was seen in the KO mice. In the lungs of CS injected KO mice, the injury score, MIP-2 mRNA, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and TUNEL staining were significantly reduced by 76%, 70%, 26% and 74%, respectively compared to the CS WT mice. Gut TUNEL staining was also reduced by 80%.
Conclusion
The deficiency in RIPK3 attenuated serum and lung cytokines, lung injury and neutrophil infiltration and lung and gut apoptosis. These data suggest that RIPK3, in part, is responsible for the systemic inflammatory response in neonatal sepsis.