The protective role of IL-10 and TGF-β/Smad cascade is supported by a study showing that colonization with gram-positive Enterococcus faecalis in IL-10-deficient mice resulted in the development of persistent activation of TLR/NF-κB signaling and inflammation in intestinal epithelial cells, which completely lack Smad 7 expression (Ruiz

et al., 2005). Smad 7 can cause disruption of TGF-β signaling by physically interfering with activation of Smad2/Smad 3 and preventing their interaction with TGF-β receptor. In the current study, we observed that mice infected with C. rodentium alone had significantly enhanced Smad 7 expression and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion. These responses were reduced in mice pretreated with probiotic La, prebiotic inulin, learn more and synbiotic combination. The association

between the attenuation of pathogen-induced colitis and abolished pro-inflammatory Smad 7 signaling in colonic tissues of Cr pathogen-infected mice provide evidence to suggest that probiotic La, prebiotic inulin, Erlotinib cost and a synbiotic combination may enhance host protection from enteric pathogens by modulating regulatory immunological responses within the gut, which is supported by recent evidence demonstrating a direct effect of Smad 7 on NF-κB (Grau et al., 2006). Hegazy & El-Bedewy (2010) demonstrated that oral probiotic supplementation ameliorated colonic pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and TNF-α and NF-κB expression in IBD patients. Moreover, we demonstrate that in vitro with CMT93 cells that Smad 7 and NF-κB induction parallels pro-inflammatory L-gulonolactone oxidase cytokine secretion (TNF-α), which imply that colonic Smad 7 and NF-κB induction may be correlated with the production of inflammatory cytokines contributing to the pathological changes attributed to pathogen invasion. Other

studies have also shown a correlation between chronic inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and Smad 7 in patients with autoimmune disease (Monteleone et al., 2004a; Hegazy & El-Bedewy, 2010). Thus, we can conjecture that pro-inflammatory cytokines produced in vivo by the early responding antigen presenting cells may perpetuate Smad 7 signaling culminating in a chronic inflammatory response. Studies have demonstrated that lamina propria mononuclear cells isolated from IBD patients had enhanced Smad 7 protein levels and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, which was not reduced by TGF-β, whereas inhibition of Smad 7 restores the ability of TGF-β to inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine production (Monteleone et al., 2001), implying that the effects of TGF-β in the microenvironment are not linearly related to its relative abundance. Inhibitory Smads, such as Smad 7, control the strength of the signal from the cell surface to the nucleus and thus control cell function (Monteleone et al., 2001).