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Virginia Tech

Super Low Dose Endotoxin Exacerbates Low Grade Inflammation through Modulating Cell Stress and Decreasing Cellular Homeostatic Protein Expression

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The establishment of non-resolving inflammation underlies the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases in humans. Super low dose (SLD) endotoxin has been associated with exacerbating inflammation and the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well studied. In this study, I tested the hypothesis that SLD endotoxin may potentiate non-resolving innate immune cell inflammation through disrupting cellular endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis. We chose to study the dynamics of ER homeostasis in macrophages stimulated with SLD endotoxin. In naïve cells, ER stressor such as tunicamycin (TM) not only will induce cellular stress and inflammation through JNK and NFkβ activation, but also will cause subsequent compensatory homeostasis through inducing homeostatic molecules such as XBP1 and GRP78/BiP. We observed that cells challenged with SLD endotoxin have significantly reduced expression of homeostatic molecules XBP1 and BiP. Mechanistically, we observed that SLD-LPS increases phosphorylated HCK expression in TM treated cells. Phosphorylated HCK activation resulted in the phosphorylation of Golgi protein GRASP, leading to unstacking of Golgi cisterna and overall dysfunction of the Golgi apparatus. Dysfunctional Golgi apparatus and its effect on protein transport and secretion, may account for decreased levels of Site 2 Protease, reduced generation of ATF6 and its transcriptional target BiP. Taken together, our study reveal that super low dose endotoxin exacerbates low grade inflammation through increasing phosphorylation of HCK, inducing Golgi dysfunction, and decreasing BiP /homeostatic protein expression in innate immune cells.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Biological Sciences
Department dc:contributor.department
Biological Sciences
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2017

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Lyle, Chimera
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Li, Liwu
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Bevan, David R.
  • Lawrence, Christopher B.
  • Yuan, Lijuan

Subjects

dc:subject × 8

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:11275
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/86360

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Lyle, Chimera. Super Low Dose Endotoxin Exacerbates Low Grade Inflammation through Modulating Cell Stress and Decreasing Cellular Homeostatic Protein Expression. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/86360