Endocrine Abstracts

Calcium signaling plays a regulatory role in the events of cellular proliferation. In immunocytes such as T cells, B cells, mast cells and many other cell types, Ca²⁺ signals show to control the proliferation, differentiation, and function. Furthermore, Ca²⁺ has been shown to act as a second messenger to regulate innate immune cell function and activation. Here, we found that loss of Nckx3, a potassium-dependent Na⁺ /Ca²⁺ exchanger, up-regulated of innate immune response-associated genes in the duodenum. In addition, Nckx3 KO mice showed an increase in inflammatory bowel disease- and tumorigenesis-related genes. In DSS-induced experimental colitis mice models, Nckx3 KO mice attenuated the severity of colitis. There were higher in the cumulative injury score, histopathology and evident at both the levels of mucosal inflammation and crypt injury in the DSS-treated Nckx3 KO mice than in the wild-type mice. Together, these results highlight that Nckx3 plays a critical role in the innate immune and immune response, may be central to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases.