The effect ofFaecalibacterium prausnitziiand its extracellular vesicles on the permeability of intestinal epithelial cells and expression of PPARs and ANGPTL4 in the Caco-2 cell culture model

Background and Objectives: Gut microbiota such asFaecalibacterium prausnitziiplay a major role in the regulation of gut barrier, inflammation and metabolic functions. Microbiota-derived extracellular vehicles (EVs) have been recently introduced as functional units mediating the eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell-microbiota interactions. In this paper, the effect ofF. prausnitziiand its EVs on mRNA expression levels of tight junction genes (ZO1andOCLN) as well asPPARsandANGPTL4genes in the human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cell line was evaluated. Methods F. prausnitziiwas cultured on the Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) broth medium under anaerobic conditions, and its EVs were extracted by ultracentrifugation. This bacterium and its EVs were treated on the Caco-2 cells. After 24 h, the expression of the genes encoding TJ proteins such asZO1andOCLN,PPARsandANGPTL4was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR. Results UnlikeF. prausnitzii, its EVs significantly increased the expression ofZO1andOCLNgenes, andPPAR alpha,PPAR gamma andPPAR beta/delta genes (except at a concentration of 100 mu g/ml) as well asANGPTL4gene. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated thatF. prausnitzii-derived EVs increased the intestinal barrier permeability via TJs (ZO1andOCLN) as well asPPAR-alpha,PPAR-gamma andPPAR beta/delta genes and their targeted gene (ANGPTL4)in the Caco-2 cell line. Accordingly, it is suggested thatF. prausnitzii-derived EVs can be considered as a new bacterial postbiotic to cure dysbiosis-associated diseases including obesity and its related metabolic dysfunctions, according to the leaky gut hypothesis.