Intestinal dendritic cells change in number in fulminant hepatic failure.

To investigate the change in intestinal dendritic cell (DC) number in fulminant hepatic failure (FHF). An animal model of FHF was created. Intestinal CD11b/c was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect intestinal integrin-α mRNA expression. Intestinal CD83, CD86, CD74, CD3 and AKT were detected by immunohistochemistry, Western blot and PCR. Phosphorylated-AKT (p-AKT) was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. In the FHF group [D-galactosamine (D-Galn) + lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group], the mice began to die after 6 h; conversely, in the D-Galn and LPS groups, the activity of mice was poor, but there were no deaths. Immunohistochemistry results showed that in FHF, the expression of CD11b/c (7988400 ± 385941 vs 1102400 ± 132273, P < 0.05), CD83 (13875000 ± 467493 vs 9257600 ± 400364, P < 0.05), CD86 (7988400 ± 385941 vs 1102400 ± 13227, P < 0.05) and CD74 (11056000 ± 431427 vs 4633400 ± 267903, P < 0.05) was significantly increased compared with the normal saline (NS) group. Compared with the NS group, the protein expression of CD11b/c (5.4817 ± 0.77 vs 1.4073 ± 0.37, P < 0.05) and CD86 (4.2673 ± 0.69 vs 1.1379 ± 0.42, P < 0.05) was significantly increased. Itg-α (1.1224 ± 0.3 vs 0.4907 ± 0.19, P < 0.05), CD83 (3.6986 ± 0.40 vs 1.0762 ± 0.22, P < 0.05) and CD86 (1.5801 ± 0.32 vs 0.8846 ± 0.10, P < 0.05) mRNA expression was increased significantly in the FHF group. At the protein level, expression of CD74 in the FHF group (2.3513 ± 0.52) was significantly increased compared with the NS group (1.1298 ± 0.33), whereas in the LPS group (2.3891 ± 0.47), the level of CD74 was the highest (P < 0.05). At the gene level, the relative expression of CD74 mRNA in the FHF group (1.5383 ± 0.26) was also significantly increased in comparison to the NS group (0.7648 ± 0.22; P < 0.05). CD3 expression was the highest in the FHF group (P < 0.05). In the FHF, LPS and D-Galn groups, the expression of AKT at the protein and mRNA levels was elevated compared with the NS group, but there was no statistical significance (P > 0.05). The p-AKT protein expression in the FHF (1.54 ± 0.06), LPS (1.56 ± 0.05) and D-Galn (1.29 ± 0.03) groups was higher than that in the NS group (1.07 ± 0.03) (P < 0.05). In FHF, a large number of DCs mature, express CD86, and activate MHC class II molecular pathways to induce a T cell response, and the AKT pathway is activated.