Project description:Within the human gut reside diverse microbes coexisting with the host in a mutually advantageous relationship. We comprehensively identified the modulatory effects of phylogenetically diverse human gut microbes on the murine intestinal transcriptome. Gene-expression profiles were generated from the whole-tissue intestinal RNA of mice colonized with various single microbial strains. The selection of microbe-specific effects, from the transcriptional response, yielded only a small number of transcripts, indicating that symbiotic microbes have only limited effects on the gut transcriptome overall. Moreover, none of these microbe-specific transcripts was uniformly induced by all microbes. Interestingly, these responsive transcripts were induced by some microbes but repressed by others, suggesting different microbes can have diametrically opposed consequences.
Project description:Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are immune cells that play a crucial role in maintaining tolerance to harmless antigens, including commensal microbes. In the intestine, Tregs can be classified into subsets based on their expression of transcription factors Helios, Rorg, Gata3 and cMaf. The exact functions of the intestinal Treg subsets and their role in maintaining tolerance to intestinal microbes is not fully understood. Here, we generated conditional knockout mice of each Treg subset and profiled the composition of their intestinal microbiota by performing 16S rRNA sequencing of stool from conditional knockouts and matched littermate controls.
Project description:Intestinal T cells responses are strongly influenced by microbes. In this study we aimed to adress how different microbes and what microbial factors influce intestinal T cells differentiation and subsequent clonal expansion. Paticularly we choose Clostridium ramosum (Cr) as a strong induced of a subest of intestinal Tregs (Rorc+), a medium inducer or Rorc+ Tregs an T1h7 Escherichia coli Nissle (EcN) and a strain that did not impact either o those cell (Pm). In addition, to study the impact of Escherichia coli Nissle (EcN) ploysaccharide K5 capsule on intestinal T cells activation, we used a EcN strain lacking the K5 capsule (kfiCD). At day 21 post-monocolonization we isolated CD4 T cells from monocolonized mice in both intestinal Lamina Propria and spleen and performed single cells RNA and TCR seq.
Project description:The early interaction of Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium DT104 with intact small intestinal mucosa was studied in a Small Intestinal Segment Perfusion (SISP) model. Intestinal segments were infected with or without Salmonella. Scrapings from jejunal segments were collected after perfusion for 0, 2, 4, or 8 hours. Details of the SISP experiment are described in: Niewold TA, Veldhuizen EJ, van der Meulen J, Haagsman HP, de Wit AA, Smits MA, Tersteeg MH, Hulst MM. Using the Operon 13K pig oligonucleotide array differences in host gene expression were recorded between infected and uninfected segments within a single pig (isogenic comparisons), and between identical treated segments collected from 3 individual SISP pigs, all responding markedly different to infection with Salmonella (inter-animal comparisons). A Small Intestinal Segment Perfusion (SISP) test was performed with 3 pigs (pig no. 2, 3, and 4) (cross-bred YorkshireM-CM-^W(Large WhiteM-CM-^WLandrace)). Two adjacent segments prepared in the mid-jejunum of each pig were perfused for 1 hour with Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium DT104 suspended in peptone solution (10E-09 CFU/ml) or with peptone solution alone (mock infected segment) respectively. Subsequently, segments were perfused with peptone solution alone for a maximum period of 8 hours. At 2, 4, and 8 hours a part of the infected segment was dissected to obtain mucosal scrappings. The same was done at 0 and 8 hours for the uninfected (mock) control segment. RNA isolated from scrappings was used for microarray comparisons using the Operon 13K pig oligonucleotide array. 9 comparisons were done. For each of the 3 SISP pigs, expression in the 8 hours perfused infected segment, perfused for 8 hours, was compared to expression in its adjacent mock infected segment (3 isogenic comparisons, 8 hpi.). Expression in the infected segment of each SISP pig, dissected after 2 or 4 hours of perfusion, was compared to expression in an infected segment dissected from another SISP pig (2 versus 3, 2 versus 4, and 3 versus 4 / 3 comparisons at 2 hpi., and 3 comparisons at 4 hpi.). Dye-swaps were performed for each comparison. jejunum pig, host-microbe interaction, Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium DT104.