Intravenous surfactant protein D inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced systemic inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Surfactant protein D (SP-D) is an innate host defense protein that clears infectious pathogens from the lung and regulates pulmonary host defense cells. SP-D is also detected in lower concentrations in plasma and many other non-pulmonary tissues. Plasma levels of SP-D increase during infection and other proinflammatory states; however, the source and functions of SP-D in the systemic circulation are largely unknown. We hypothesized that systemic SP-D may clear infectious pathogens and regulate host defense cells in extrapulmonary systems. METHODS: To determine if SP-D inhibited inflammation induced by systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS), E.coli LPS was administered to mice via tail vein injection with and without SP-D and the inflammatory response was measured. RESULTS: Systemic SP-D has a circulating half-life of 6 h. Systemic IL-6 levels in mice lacking the SP-D gene were similar to wild type mice at baseline but were significantly higher than wild type mice following LPS treatment (38,000 vs 29,900 ng/ml for 20 mg/kg LPS and 100,700 vs 73,700 ng/ml for 40 mg/kg LPS). In addition, treating wild type mice with purified intravenous SP-D inhibited LPS induced secretion of IL-6 and TNFα in a concentration dependent manner. Inhibition of LPS induced inflammation by SP-D correlated with SP-D LPS binding suggesting SP-D mediated inhibition of systemic LPS requires direct SP-D LPS interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the above results suggest that circulating SP-D decreases systemic inflammation and raise the possibility that a physiological purpose of increasing systemic SP-D levels during infection is to scavenge systemic infectious pathogens and limit inflammation-induced tissue injury.

Sox17 regulates insulin secretion in the normal and pathologic mouse ß cell.

SOX17 is a key transcriptional regulator that can act by regulating other transcription factors including HNF1ß and FOXA2, which are known to regulate postnatal ß cell function. Given this, we investigated the role of SOX17 in the developing and postnatal pancreas and found a novel role for SOX17 in regulating insulin secretion. Deletion of the Sox17 gene in the pancreas (Sox17-paLOF) had no observable impact on pancreas development. However, Sox17-paLOF mice had higher islet proinsulin protein content, abnormal trafficking of proinsulin, and dilated secretory organelles suggesting that Sox17-paLOF adult mice are prediabetic. Consistant with this, Sox17-paLOF mice were more susceptible to aged-related and high fat diet-induced hyperglycemia and diabetes. Overexpression of Sox17 in mature ß cells using Ins2-rtTA driver mice resulted in precocious secretion of proinsulin. Transcriptionally, SOX17 appears to broadly regulate secretory networks since a 24-hour pulse of SOX17 expression resulted in global transcriptional changes in factors that regulate hormone transport and secretion. Lastly, transient SOX17 overexpression was able to reverse the insulin secretory defects observed in MODY4 animals and restored euglycemia. Together, these data demonstrate a critical new role for SOX17 in regulating insulin trafficking and secretion and that modulation of Sox17-regulated pathways might be used therapeutically to improve cell function in the context of diabetes.