MyD88 in hematopoietic cells, but not in cerebrovascular endothelial cells or neural cells, is critical for inflammation- and cancer-induced loss of appetite

• Loss of appetite concomitant with reduced food intake is a hallmark of both acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. Yet, despite extensive investigations, the underlying mechanisms remain undefined. Here we addressed this issue using mice lacking MyD88, critical for Tolllike and IL-1 receptor family signaling, generally or in specific cell types. Ubiquitous null deletions conferred complete resistance to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced anorexia, but this resistance was lost when knock-out mice subjected to whole-body irradiation to delete hematopoietic cells were transplanted with wild-type bone-marrow. In line with this observation, mice lacking MyD88 in hematopoietic cells were largely protected against LPS-induced anorexia, whereas mice with abrogated MyD88 signaling in neural cells, being leaner and smaller, developed anorexia of similar magnitude as wild-type littermates. The effect of hematopoietic MyD88-deletion on feeding seemed however partially dissociated from the effect on body weight, since LPS triggered weight loss, although attenuated, in these mutants. Furthermore, MyD88 deficiency in the cerebrovascular endothelium affected neither LPS-induced anorexia nor weight loss. In a model for the cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome, inactivation of MyD88 in hematopoietic cells strongly impaired the anorexia development and protected against body weight loss. These findings identify hematopoietic cells as a critical nexus for acute inflammatory driven anorexia as well as for chronic anorexia associated with malignant disease.

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