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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291
Published on: December 10, 2016
Neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor is required in Clostridium difficile- induced enteritis
I Castagliuolo1, M Riegler, A Pasha
1Division of Gastroenterology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Abstract:
Toxin A, a 308,000-Mr enterotoxin from Clostridium difficile, mediates antibiotic-associated diarrhea and colitis in humans. Injection of toxin A into animal intestine triggers an acute inflammatory response characterized by activation of sensory neurons and immune cells of the intestinal lamina propria, including mast cells and macrophages, and migration of circulating neutrophils in the involved intestinal segment. In this study we show that mice genetically deficient in the neurokinin-1 receptor are protected from the secretory and inflammatory changes as well as from epithelial cell damage induced by toxin A. The protective effect of neurokinin-1R deletion correlates with diminished intestinal levels of the cytokine TNF-alpha and its mRNA and the leukocyte enzyme myeloperoxidase. These results demonstrate a major requirement for substance P receptors in the pathogenesis of acute inflammatory diarrhea.
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