Challenges in IBD Research 2024: Preclinical Human IBD Mechanisms.

Preclinical human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) mechanisms is one of 5 focus areas of the Challenges in IBD Research 2024 document, which also includes environmental triggers, novel technologies, precision medicine, and pragmatic clinical research. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview of current gaps in inflammatory bowel diseases research that relate to preclinical research and deliver actionable approaches to address them with a focus on how these gaps can lead to advancements in IBD interception, remission, and restoration. The document is the result of multidisciplinary input from scientists, clinicians, patients, and funders and represents a valuable resource for patient-centric research prioritization. This preclinical human IBD mechanisms section identifies major research gaps whose investigation will elucidate pathways and mechanisms that can be targeted to address unmet medical needs in IBD. Research gaps were identified in the following areas: genetics, risk alleles, and epigenetics; the microbiome; cell states and interactions; barrier function; IBD complications (specifically fibrosis and stricturing); and extraintestinal manifestations. To address these gaps, we share specific opportunities for investigation for basic and translational scientists and identify priority actions.

To address the unmet medical needs of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and move toward cures, preclinical human-relevant research must center on mechanistic questions pertinent to patients with IBD in the 3 areas of disease interception, remission, and restoration.

Apical-basal polarity precisely determines intestinal stem cell number by regulating Prospero threshold.

Apical-basal polarity and cell-fate determinants are crucial for the cell fate and control of stem cell numbers. However, their interplay leading to a precise stem cell number remains unclear. Drosophila pupal intestinal stem cells (pISCs) asymmetrically divide, generating one apical ISC progenitor and one basal Prospero (Pros)+ enteroendocrine mother cell (EMC), followed by symmetric divisions of each daughter before adulthood, providing an ideal system to investigate the outcomes of polarity loss. Using lineage tracing and ex vivo live imaging, we identify an interlocked polarity regulation network precisely determining ISC number: Bazooka inhibits Pros accumulation by activating Notch signaling to maintain stem cell fate in pISC apical daughters. A threshold of Pros promotes differentiation to EMCs and avoids ISC-like cell fate, and over-threshold of Pros inhibits miranda expression to ensure symmetric divisions in pISC basal daughters. Our work suggests that a polarity-dependent threshold of a differentiation factor precisely controls stem cell number.

Dynamics of Drosophila embryonic patterning network perturbed in space and time using microfluidics.

Biochemical networks are perturbed both by fluctuations in environmental conditions and genetic variation. These perturbations must be compensated for, especially when they occur during embryonic pattern formation. Complex chemical reaction networks displaying spatiotemporal dynamics have been controlled and understood by perturbing their environment in space and time. Here, we apply this approach using microfluidics to investigate the robust network in Drosophila melanogaster that compensates for variation in the Bicoid morphogen gradient. We show that the compensation system can counteract the effects of extremely unnatural environmental conditions--a temperature step--in which the anterior and posterior halves of the embryo are developing at different temperatures and thus at different rates. Embryonic patterning was normal under this condition, suggesting that a simple reciprocal gradient system is not the mechanism of compensation. Time-specific reversals of the temperature step narrowed down the critical period for compensation to between 65 and 100 min after onset of embryonic development. The microfluidic technology used here may prove useful to future studies, as it allows spatial and temporal regulation of embryonic development.

Chemical stimulation of the Arabidopsis thaliana root using multi-laminar flow on a microfluidic chip.

In this article, we developed a "plant on a chip" microfluidic platform that can control the local chemical environment around live roots of Arabidopsis thaliana with high spatial resolution using multi-laminar flow. We characterized the flow profile around the Arabidopsis root, and verified that the shear forces within the device ( approximately 10 dyne cm(-2)) did not impede growth of the roots. Our platform was able to deliver stimuli to the root at a spatial resolution of 10-800 microm. Further, the platform was validated by exposing desired regions of the root with a synthetic auxin derivative, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), and its inhibitor N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA). The response to the stimuli was observed using a DR5::GFP Arabidopsis line, where GFP expression is coupled to the auxin response regulator DR5. GFP expression in the root matched the position of the flow-focused stream containing 2,4-D. When the regions around the 2,4-D stimulus were exposed to the auxin transport inhibitor NPA, the active and passive transport mechanisms of auxin could be differentiated, as NPA blocks active cell-to-cell transport of auxin. Finally, we demonstrated that local 2,4-D stimulation in a approximately 10 microm root segment enhanced morphological changes such as epidermal hair growth. These experiments were proof-of-concept and agreed with the results expected based on known root biology, demonstrating that this "root on a chip" platform can be used to test how root development is affected by any chemical component of interest, including nitrogen, phosphate, salts, and other plant hormones.

Isolation, incubation, and parallel functional testing and identification by FISH of rare microbial single-copy cells from multi-species mixtures using the combination of chemistrode and stochastic confinement.

This paper illustrates a plug-based microfluidic approach combining the technique of the chemistrode and the principle of stochastic confinement, which can be used to i) starting from a mixture of cells, stochastically isolate single cells into plugs, ii) incubate the plugs to grow clones of the individual cells without competition among different clones, iii) split the plugs into arrays of identical daughter plugs, where each plug contained clones of the original cell, and iv) analyze each array by an independent technique, including cellulase assays, cultivation, cryo-preservation, Gram staining, and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH). Functionally, this approach is equivalent to simultaneously assaying the clonal daughter cells by multiple killing and non-killing methods. A new protocol for single-cell FISH, a killing method, was developed to identify isolated cells of Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus in one array of daughter plugs using a 16S rRNA probe, Pc196. At the same time, live copies of P. curdlanolyticus in another array were obtained for cultivation. Among technical advances, this paper reports a chemistrode that enables sampling of nanoliter volumes directly from environmental specimens, such as soil slurries. In addition, a method for analyzing plugs is described: an array of droplets is deposited on the surface, and individual plugs are injected into the droplets of the surface array to induce a reaction and enable microscopy without distortions associated with curvature of plugs. The overall approach is attractive for identifying rare, slow growing microorganisms and would complement current methods to cultivate unculturable microbes from environmental samples.

Using chemistry and microfluidics to understand the spatial dynamics of complex biological networks.

Understanding the spatial dynamics of biochemical networks is both fundamentally important for understanding life at the systems level and also has practical implications for medicine, engineering, biology, and chemistry. Studies at the level of individual reactions provide essential information about the function, interactions, and localization of individual molecular species and reactions in a network. However, analyzing the spatial dynamics of complex biochemical networks at this level is difficult. Biochemical networks are nonequilibrium systems containing dozens to hundreds of reactions with nonlinear and time-dependent interactions, and these interactions are influenced by diffusion, flow, and the relative values of state-dependent kinetic parameters. To achieve an overall understanding of the spatial dynamics of a network and the global mechanisms that drive its function, networks must be analyzed as a whole, where all of the components and influential parameters of a network are simultaneously considered. Here, we describe chemical concepts and microfluidic tools developed for network-level investigations of the spatial dynamics of these networks. Modular approaches can be used to simplify these networks by separating them into modules, and simple experimental or computational models can be created by replacing each module with a single reaction. Microfluidics can be used to implement these models as well as to analyze and perturb the complex network itself with spatial control on the micrometer scale. We also describe the application of these network-level approaches to elucidate the mechanisms governing the spatial dynamics of two networkshemostasis (blood clotting) and early patterning of the Drosophila embryo. To investigate the dynamics of the complex network of hemostasis, we simplified the network by using a modular mechanism and created a chemical model based on this mechanism by using microfluidics. Then, we used the mechanism and the model to predict the dynamics of initiation and propagation of blood clotting and tested these predictions with human blood plasma by using microfluidics. We discovered that both initiation and propagation of clotting are regulated by a threshold response to the concentration of activators of clotting, and that clotting is sensitive to the spatial localization of stimuli. To understand the dynamics of patterning of the Drosophila embryo, we used microfluidics to perturb the environment around a developing embryo and observe the effects of this perturbation on the expression of Hunchback, a protein whose localization is essential to proper development. We found that the mechanism that is responsible for Hunchback positioning is asymmetric, time-dependent, and more complex than previously proposed by studies of individual reactions. Overall, these approaches provide strategies for simplifying, modeling, and probing complex networks without sacrificing the functionality of the network. Such network-level strategies may be most useful for understanding systems with nonlinear interactions where spatial dynamics is essential for function. In addition, microfluidics provides an opportunity to investigate the mechanisms responsible for robust functioning of complex networks. By creating nonideal, stressful, and perturbed environments, microfluidic experiments could reveal the function of pathways thought to be nonessential under ideal conditions.

Amitosis of Polyploid Cells Regenerates Functional Stem Cells in the Drosophila Intestine.

Organ fitness depends on appropriate maintenance of stem cell populations, and aberrations in functional stem cell numbers are associated with malignancies and aging. Symmetrical division is the best characterized mechanism of stem cell replacement, but other mechanisms could also be deployed, particularly in situations of high stress. Here, we show that after severe depletion, intestinal stem cells (ISCs) in the Drosophila midgut are replaced by spindle-independent ploidy reduction of cells in the enterocyte lineage through a process known as amitosis. Amitosis is also induced by the functional loss of ISCs coupled with tissue demand and in aging flies, underscoring the generality of this mechanism. However, we also found that random homologous chromosome segregation during ploidy reduction can expose deleterious mutations through loss of heterozygosity. Together, our results highlight amitosis as an unappreciated mechanism for restoring stem cell homeostasis, but one with some associated risk in animals carrying mutations.

Characterization of the local temperature in space and time around a developing Drosophila embryo in a microfluidic device.

This paper characterizes a microfluidic platform that differentially controls the temperature of each half of a living Drosophila melanogaster fruitfly embryo in space and time (E. M. Lucchetta, J. H. Lee, L. A. Fu, N. H. Patel and R. F. Ismagilov, Nature, 2005, 434, 1134-1138). This platform relies on laminar flow of two streams of liquid with different temperature, and on rapid prototyping in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Here, we characterized fluid flow and heat transport in this platform both experimentally and by numerical simulation, and estimated the temperature distribution around and within the embryo by numerical simulation, to identify the conditions for creating a sharper temperature difference (temperature step) over the embryo. Embryos were removed from the device and immunostained histochemically for detection of Paired protein. Biochemical processes are sensitive to small differences in environmental temperature. The microfluidic platform characterized here could prove useful in understanding dynamics of biochemical networks as they respond to changes in temperature.

The Drosophila midgut: a model for stem cell driven tissue regeneration.

The Drosophila and mammalian digestive systems bear striking similarities in genetic control and cellular composition, and the Drosophila midgut has emerged as an amenable model for dissecting the mechanisms of tissue homeostasis. The Drosophila midgut is maintained by multipotent intestinal stem cells (ISCs) that give rise to all cell types in the intestinal epithelium and are required for long-term tissue homeostasis. ISC proliferation rate increases in response to a myriad of chemical and bacterial insults through the release of JAK-STAT and EGFR ligands from dying enterocytes that activate the JAK-STAT and EGFR pathways in ISCs. The Hippo and JNK pathways converge upon JAK-STAT and EGFR signaling, presumably in response to specific stresses, and JNK and insulin signaling have been shown to be critical in response to age-related stresses. This review details these emerging mechanisms of tissue homeostasis and the proliferative response of ISCs to epithelial damage, environmental stresses, and aging.

The endo-siRNA pathway is essential for robust development of the Drosophila embryo.

BACKGROUND: Robustness to natural temperature fluctuations is critical to proper development in embryos and to cellular functions in adult organisms. However, mechanisms and pathways which govern temperature compensation remain largely unknown beyond circadian rhythms. Pathways which ensure robustness against temperature fluctuations may appear to be nonessential under favorable, uniform environmental conditions used in conventional laboratory experiments where there is little variation for which to compensate. The endo-siRNA pathway, which produces small double-stranded RNAs in Drosophila, appears to be nonessential for robust development of the embryo under ambient uniform temperature and to be necessary only for viral defense. Embryos lacking a functional endo-siRNA pathway develop into phenotypically normal adults. However, we hypothesized that small RNAs may regulate the embryo's response to temperature, as a ribonucleoprotein complex has been previously shown to mediate mammalian cell response to heat shock. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we show that the genes DICER-2 and ARGONAUTE2, which code for integral protein components of the endo-siRNA pathway, are essential for robust development and temperature compensation in the Drosophila embryo when exposed to temperature perturbations. The regulatory functions of DICER-2 and ARGONAUTE2 were uncovered by using microfluidics to expose developing Drosophila embryos to a temperature step, in which each half of the embryo develops at a different temperature through developmental cycle 14. Under this temperature perturbation, dicer-2 or argonaute2 embryos displayed abnormal segmentation. The abnormalities in segmentation are presumably due to the inability of the embryo to compensate for temperature-induced differences in rate of development and to coordinate developmental timing in the anterior and posterior halves. A deregulation of the length of nuclear division cycles 10-14 is also observed in dicer-2 embryos at high temperatures. CONCLUSIONS: Results presented herein uncover a novel function of the endo-siRNA pathway in temperature compensation and cell cycle regulation, and we hypothesize that the endo-siRNA pathway may regulate the degradation of maternal cell cycle regulators. Endo-siRNAs may have a more general role buffering against environmental perturbations in other organisms.

A precise Bicoid gradient is nonessential during cycles 11-13 for precise patterning in the Drosophila blastoderm.

BACKGROUND: During development, embryos decode maternal morphogen inputs into highly precise zygotic gene expression. The discovery of the morphogen Bicoid and its profound effect on developmental programming in the Drosophila embryo has been a cornerstone in understanding the decoding of maternal inputs. Bicoid has been described as a classical morphogen that forms a concentration gradient along the antero-posterior axis of the embryo by diffusion and initiates expression of target genes in a concentration-dependent manner in the syncytial blastoderm. Recent work has emphasized the stability of the Bicoid gradient as a function of egg length and the role of nuclear dynamics in maintaining the Bicoid gradient. Bicoid and nuclear dynamics were observed but not modulated under the ideal conditions used previously. Therefore, it has not been tested explicitly whether a temporally stable Bicoid gradient prior to cellularization is required for precise patterning. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we modulate both nuclear dynamics and the Bicoid gradient using laminar flows of different temperature in a microfluidic device to determine if stability of the Bicoid gradient prior to cellularization is essential for precise patterning. Dramatic motion of both cytoplasm and nuclei was observed prior to cellularization, and the Bicoid gradient was disrupted by nuclear motion and was highly abnormal as a function of egg length. Despite an abnormal Bicoid gradient during cycles 11-13, Even-skipped patterning in these embryos remained precise. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the stability of the Bicoid gradient as a function of egg length is nonessential during syncytial blastoderm stages. Further, presumably no gradient formed by simple diffusion on the scale of egg length could be responsible for the robust antero-posterior patterning observed, as severe cytoplasmic and nuclear motion would disrupt such a gradient. Additional mechanisms for how the embryo could sense its dimensions and interpret the Bicoid gradient are discussed.