Project description:The postnatal period is one of the important windows for developing the gastrointestinal tract's structure-function and associated mucosal immunity. Recent studies suggest a promising contribution of gut microbiota in maintaining host health, immunity, and gut development. However, the function of postnatal gut microbiota dynamics concerning intestinal mucosal development needs to be better understood. To decipher the causal role of gut microbiota on barrier integrity and intestinal epithelium development, we executed an antibiotic-mediated perturbation and tracked the kinetics in postnatal mice. We observed a postnatal age-related impact of antibiotic-mediated gut microbiota perturbation with a substantial decrease in total bacterial load on P14D and also in the barrier integrity and IECs marker. To enhance our knowledge of the mechanisms behind this, we employed a global transcriptomics approach to see the alterations in the mucosal innate immunity and other relevant pathways.
Project description:Although much research has been done on the diversity of gut microbiome, little is known about the way it influences intestinal homeostasis under normal and pathogenic conditions. Epigenetic mechanisms have recently been suggested as operating at the interface between the microbiota and the intestinal epithelium cells (IECs). Using genome-wide analyses, we discovered that exposure to microbiota induced both global DNA hypomethylation and localized changes at regulatory elements, which culminates in activation of a set of “early sentinel” response genes that play a role in maintaining gut homeostasis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that exposure to microbiota in acute inflammation results in profound DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility changes at regulatory elements leading to alterations in the gene expression program in colitis and colon cancer. Our studies add a new dimension to our understanding of the cross talk between the microbiota and IECs, and provide the foundation for how microbiota impact epigenetic programming.
Project description:The gut microbiota plays an important role in host health. Microbiota dysbiosis has been implicated in the global epidemic of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) and could impair host metabolism by noxious metabolites. It has been well established that the gut microbiota is shaped by host immune factors. However, the effect of T cells on the gut microbiota is yet unknown. Here, we performed a metagenomic whole-genome shotgun sequencing (mWGS) study of the microbiota of TCRb-/- mice, which lack alpha/beta T cells.
Project description:The mammalian gut harbors a diverse microbial community (gut microbiota) that mainly consists of bacteria. Their combined genomes (the microbiome) provide biochemical and metabolic functions that complement host physiology. Maintaining symbiosis seems to be a key requirement for health as dysbiosis is associated with the development of common diseases. Previous studies indicated that the microbiota and the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys epithelium signal bidirectional inducing transcriptional responses to fine-tune and maintain symbiosis. However, little is known about the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys responses to the microbiota along the length of the gut as earlier studies of gut microbial ecology mostly used either colonic or fecal samples. This is of importance as not only function and architecture of the gut varies along its length but also microbial distribution and diversity. Few recent studies have begun to investigate microbiota-induced host responses along the length of the gut. However, these reports used whole tissue samples and therefore do not allow drawing conclusions about specificity of the observed responses. Which cells in the intestinal tissue are responsible for the microbially induced response: epithelial, mesenchymal or immune cells? Where are the responding cells located? Furthermore, the gut microbiota has been implicated in epigenetic regulation of the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys transcriptional profile. We used using extensive microarray analysis of laser capture microdissection (LCM) harvested ileal and colonic tip and crypt fractions from germ-free mice before and during the time course of colonization with a normal microbiota (on days 1, 3, 5 and 7) to investigate the microbiota-induced transcriptional responses and their kinetics in specific and well-defined cell populations of the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys epithelium. Ileum and colon segments were dissected from germ-free 10-12 weeks old female C57Bl/6 mice and on day 1, 3, 5 and 7 after colonization, washed and frozen as OCT blocks. Cryosections were prepared from these OCT blocks and tip/crypt fractions isolated using laser capture microdissection. To investigate the microbiota-induced transcriptional responses specific for specific subpopulations of intestinal epithelial cells and their kinetics, tip and crypt fractions of ileal and colonic epithelium of germ-free 10-12 weeks old female C57Bl/6 mice before and during the time course of colonization with a normal microbiota (on days 1, 3, 5 and 7) were harvested using laser capture microdissection and probed in an extensive microarray analysis.
Project description:The mammalian gut harbors a diverse microbial community (gut microbiota) that mainly consists of bacteria. Their combined genomes (the microbiome) provide biochemical and metabolic functions that complement host physiology. Maintaining symbiosis seems to be a key requirement for health as dysbiosis is associated with the development of common diseases. Previous studies indicated that the microbiota and the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys epithelium signal bidirectional inducing transcriptional responses to fine-tune and maintain symbiosis. However, little is known about the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys responses to the microbiota along the length of the gut as earlier studies of gut microbial ecology mostly used either colonic or fecal samples. This is of importance as not only function and architecture of the gut varies along its length but also microbial distribution and diversity. Few recent studies have begun to investigate microbiota-induced host responses along the length of the gut. However, these reports used whole tissue samples and therefore do not allow drawing conclusions about specificity of the observed responses. Which cells in the intestinal tissue are responsible for the microbially induced response: epithelial, mesenchymal or immune cells? Where are the responding cells located? We used using extensive microarray analysis of laser capture microdissection (LCM) harvested ileal and colonic tip and crypt fractions from germ-free and conventionally-raised mice to investigate the microbiota-induced transcriptional responses in specific and well-defined cell populations of the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys epithelium. Ileum and colon segments were dissected from germ-free and conventionally-raised 10-12 weeks old female C57Bl/6 mice, washed and frozen as OCT blocks. Cryosections were prepared from these OCT blocks and tip/crypt fractions isolated using laser capture microdissection. To investigate the microbiota-induced transcriptional responses specific for specific subpopulations of intestinal epithelial cells, tip and crypt fractions of ileal and colonic epithelium of germ-free and conventionally-raised 10-12 weeks old female C57Bl/6 mice were harvested using laser capture microdissection and probed in an extensive microarray analysis.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer is the 3rd most prevalent cause of cancer related deaths in United states alone, with over 55000 patients being diagnosed in 2019 alone and nearly as many succumbing to it. Late detection, lack of effective therapy and poor understanding of pancreatic cancer systemically contributes to its poor survival statistics. Obesity and high caloric intake linked co-morbidities like type 2 diabetes (T2D) have been attributed as being risk factors for a number of cancers including pancreatic cancer. Studies on gut microbiome has shown that lifestyle factors as well as diet has a huge effect on the microbial flora of the gut. Further, modulation of gut microbiome has been seen to contribute to effects of intensive insulin therapy in mice on high fat diet. In another study, abnormal gut microbiota was reported to contribute to development of diabetes in Db/Db mice. Recent studies indicate that microbiome and microbial dysbiosis plays a role in not only the onset of disease but also in its outcome. In colorectal cancer, Fusobacterium has been reported to promote therapy resistance. Certain intra-tumoral bacteria have also been shown to elicit chemo-resistance by metabolizing anti-cancerous agents. In pancreatic cancer, studies on altered gut microbiome have been relatively recent. Microbial dysbiosis has been observed to be associated with pancreatic tumor progression. Modulation of microbiome has been shown to affect response to anti-PD1 therapy in this disease as well. However, most of the studies in pancreatic cancer and microbiome have remained focused om immune modulation. In the current study, we observed that in a T2D mouse model, the microbiome changed significantly as the hyperglycemia developed in these animals. Our results further showed that, tumors implanted in the T2D mice responded poorly to Gemcitabine/Paclitaxel (Gem/Pac) standard of care compared to those in the control group. A metabolomic reconstruction of the WGS of the gut microbiota further revealed that an enrichment of bacterial population involved in drug metabolism in the T2D group.
Project description:Although much research has been done on the diversity of gut microbiome, little is known about the way it influences intestinal homeostasis under normal and pathogenic conditions. Epigenetic mechanisms have recently been suggested as operating at the interface between the microbiota and the intestinal epithelium cells (IECs). Using genome-wide analyses, we discovered that exposure to microbiota induced both global DNA hypomethylation and localized changes at regulatory elements, which culminates in activation of a set of “early sentinel” response genes that play a role in maintaining gut homeostasis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that exposure to microbiota in acute inflammation results in profound DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility changes at regulatory elements leading to alterations in the gene expression program in colitis and colon cancer. Our studies add a new dimension to our understanding of the cross talk between the microbiota and IECs, and provide the foundation for how microbiota impact epigenetic programming.