4th Annual BMRP Investigator Meeting - Abstract
Intestinal Microbiota and Systemic Immune Homeostasis
Jonathan Braun1,a, Laura L. Presley2, Michael McPherson1, Elizabeth Bent2, Bo Wei 1, Sarah Brewer1 and James Borneman2
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.); 2Graduate Program in Microbiology, University of California, Riverside (Riverside, California, U.S.A.)
In a comparison of C57BL/6 mice bearing Firmicutes-predominant (FP) or Bacteroides-predominant (BP) intestinal bacteria, FP mice were functionally and phenotypically deficient in protective B cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC), naïve CD4 and CD8 T cells, and iNK T cells (Scupham, AEM 2006, 72:793; Huang Clin Immunol 2005, 177:221). After antibiotic manipulation of the bacterial community, Firmicutes and Enterobacter were distinguished from more than 100 bacterial taxa by their significant association with B and T lymphocyte population levels, reminiscent of the predominance of Firmicutes vs. Bacteroides taxa in fecal bacteria of Crohn’s disease patients (Manichanh Gut 2006, 55:205). Protective B and pDC populations share the capacity to regulate these affected T cell populations. It is, therefore, possible that pDC and protective B cells reflect an overlapping or identical population of immunoregulatory cells, whose formation is programmed by resident enteric bacteria.
aPrincipal Investigator