Institute for Infection and Global Health and School of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool. Leahurst Campus, Neston, CH64 7TE, UK.
Institute for Research on the Environment and Sustainability, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.
Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 23;7:45090. doi: 10.1038/srep45090.
Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis with contaminated poultry meat its main source. Control of C. jejuni is a priority for the poultry industry but no vaccines are available and their development hampered by poor understanding of the immunobiology of C. jejuni infection. Here we show the functional role of B lymphocytes in response to C. jejuni in the chicken through depletion of the B lymphocyte population (bursectomy) followed by challenge. B lymphocyte depletion has little effect on bacterial numbers in the ceca, the main site of colonisation, where C. jejuni persist to beyond commercial slaughter age, but reduces clearance from the small intestine. In longer-term experiments we show antibody leads to reduction in C. jeuni numbers in the ceca by nine weeks post infection. Whilst we did not examine any protective role to re-challenge, it illustrates the difficulty in producing a vaccine in a young, immunologically naïve host. We believe this is first study of functional immunity to C. jejuni in chicken and shows antibody is ineffective in clearing C. jejuni from the ceca within the production lifetime of chickens, although is involved in clearance from the small intestine and longer-term clearance from the ceca.
空肠弯曲菌是食源性细菌性肠胃炎的主要致病菌，其主要传染源是受污染的禽肉。控制空肠弯曲菌是家禽业的首要任务，但目前尚无可用的疫苗，其发展受到对空肠弯曲菌感染免疫生物学认识不足的阻碍。在这里，我们通过对鸡进行 B 淋巴细胞群体（法氏囊切除术）耗竭，然后进行攻毒，研究了 B 淋巴细胞在鸡对空肠弯曲菌反应中的功能作用。B 淋巴细胞耗竭对盲肠（主要定植部位）中的细菌数量几乎没有影响，空肠弯曲菌在盲肠中持续存在，直至超过商业屠宰年龄，但从小肠中的清除率降低。在长期实验中，我们发现感染后 9 周，抗体可导致盲肠中空肠弯曲菌数量减少。虽然我们没有检查再次攻毒的任何保护作用，但这说明了在年轻、免疫幼稚的宿主中生产疫苗的困难。我们认为这是首次在鸡中研究针对空肠弯曲菌的功能性免疫，表明抗体不能有效地从鸡的生产生命周期内清除盲肠中的空肠弯曲菌，但它参与了从小肠和盲肠的长期清除。
