Altered Inflammatory Responses to Citrobacter rodentium Infection, but not Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide, in Mice Lacking the Cyp4a10 or Cyp4a14 Genes

Murine hepatic Cyp4a mRNAs are markedly downregulated during inflammation. Here, we investigated the roles of Cyp4a10 and Cyp4a14 in the response to infection with C. rodentium. Absence of either Cyp4a gene attenuated or abrogated the changes in spleen weight, colon crypt length, hepatic cytokine, and acute phase protein mRNAs, and serum acute phase proteins and cytokines caused by infection. Cyp4a10 ^−/− mice on a low-salt diet had a similar hepatic acute phase response as those mice on a high-salt diet, suggesting that hypertension associated with this genotype is not the cause of their altered inflammatory response. In contrast, wild-type, Cyp4a10 ^−/−, and Cyp4a14 ^−/− mice showed similar responses to injected LPS. These results implicate Cyp4a10 and Cyp4a14 in the regulation of the host inflammatory response to enteropathogenic bacterial infection but not to acute aseptic inflammation. Understanding the mechanism of this role may lead to novel therapeutic approaches in some inflammatory diseases.