OBJECTIVETo study the effects of intestinal trefoil factor (ITF) on Toll-like receptors (TLR) 2 and 4 expression in intestinal tissue and on intestinal injury in young rats with endotoxemia.

METHODSA total of 24 10-day-old Wistar rat pups were equally randomly divided into three groups: a control group, intraperitoneally injected with normal saline 1 mL/kg; an endotoxemia group, intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 5 mg/kg and an ITF group,intraperitoneally injected with rITF 0.1 mL/each plus LPS 5 mg/kg. Rats were sacrificed 3 h after injection. A segment of distal ileum was dissected for pathologic examinations under an optical microscope (hematoxylin-eosin staning). The mRNA expressions of TLR2 and TLR4 were detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

RESULTSThe structure of the small intestine remained normal in the control group. Edema of interstitial substance and epithelium were observed in both LPS and ITF groups, whereas such changes were significantly lower in the ITF group than in the LPS group. The ITF group had significantly higher TLR2 mRNA expression than the NS and LPS groups (P<0.01), whereas the mRNA expression of TLR4 in the ITF group was significantly lower than in the NS and LPS groups (both P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONSITF can alleviate intestinal injury in young rats with endotoxemia, which may be related to the down-regulation of TLR4 mRNA expression.