Equine Enteric Glial Culture and Application to the Study of a Neural Inflammatory Mechanism in Equine Colic

Inflammatory postoperative conditions of equine colic (acute abdomen) contribute not only to increased client cost, patient discomfort, and hospitalization time, but in many cases, prove to be life-threatening. A unique population of intestinal cells, enteric glia, are increasingly acknowledged for their roles in sensing the gastrointestinal environment and communicating with surrounding cell types. Interactions between enteric glia and intestinal epithelia may prove critical in establishing how equine enteric glia can alter the mucosal barrier to modulate inflammation in health and colic.

To study this interaction, we present a method of establishing primary equine enteric glial cultures from equine jejunum and exposing the cultures to inflammatory conditions known to be present in colic. Primary enteric glial cultures were obtained from adult horses euthanized for reasons unrelated to colic. Intestinal villi and lamina propria were micro-dissected to expose the submucosa. The isolated submucosa underwent enzymatic digestion with collagenase, protease, and bovine serum albumin for 2-3 h. Next, mechanical digestion involving centrifugation, pipetting, and cell strainers (40-100 µm), yielded a pellet used for plating on 0.05 mg/mL poly-L-lysine-coated wells at a concentration of ~400,000 cells/300 µL of media.

Following confluence and first passage, the enteric glial cells were then exposed to equine recombinant IL-1β (0, 10, 25 ng) for 24 h. To model epithelial-glial interactions at the time of colic, medium conditioned by either control or treated enteric glia was added directly to confluent equine jejunal monolayers while measuring transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) using a dual-electrode EndOhm chamber. These data demonstrate just one of many potential impactful applications of equine enteric glial culture.