Webster Sarah E, Vos Duncan, Rothstein Thomas L, Holodick Nichol E
Center for Immunobiology, Department of Investigative Medicine, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, USA.
Division of Epidemiology and Biostatics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, USA.
Front Microbiomes. 2022;1. doi: 10.3389/frmbi.2022.994464. Epub 2022 Oct 10.
The microbiome and immune system have a unique interplay, which influences homeostasis within the organism. Both the microbiome and immune system play important roles in health and diseases of the aged including development of cancer, autoimmune disorders, and susceptibility to infection. Various groups have demonstrated divergent changes in the gut microbiota during aging, yet the compounding factor of biological sex within the context of aging remains incompletely understood, and little is known about the effect of housing location in the composition of gut microbiota in the context of both sex and age. To better understand the roles of sex, aging, and location in influencing the gut microbiome, we obtained normal healthy BALB/cByJ mice from a single source and aged male and female mice in two different geographical locations. The 16S rRNA was analyzed from fecal samples of these mice and cytokine levels were measured from serum.16S rRNA microbiome analysis indicated that both age and sex play a role in microbiome composition, whereas location plays a lesser role in the diversity present. Interestingly, microbiome changes occurred with alterations in serum expression of several different cytokines including IL-10 and IL-6, which were also both differentially regulated in context to sex and aging. We found both IL-10 and IL-6 play a role in the constitutive expression of pSTAT-3 in CD5+ B-1 cells, which are known to regulate the microbiome. Additionally, significant correlations were found between cytokine expression and significantly abundant microbes. Based on these results, we conclude aging mice undergo sex-associated alterations in the gut microbiome and have a distinct cytokine profile. Further, there is significant interplay between B-1 cells and the microbiome which is influenced by aging in a sex-dependent manner. Together, these results illustrate the complex interrelationship among sex, aging, immunity, housing location, and the gut microbiome.
微生物群与免疫系统有着独特的相互作用,这种相互作用影响着机体的内环境稳态。微生物群和免疫系统在老年人的健康与疾病中都发挥着重要作用,包括癌症的发生、自身免疫性疾病以及感染易感性。不同研究团队已证实衰老过程中肠道微生物群会发生不同变化,但衰老背景下生物性别的复合因素仍未完全明晰,而且对于性别和年龄背景下居住地点对肠道微生物群组成的影响知之甚少。为了更好地理解性别、衰老和居住地点在影响肠道微生物群方面的作用,我们从单一来源获取了正常健康的BALB/cByJ小鼠,并将雄性和雌性小鼠分别置于两个不同地理位置进行衰老实验。对这些小鼠的粪便样本进行16S rRNA分析,并检测血清中的细胞因子水平。16S rRNA微生物群分析表明,年龄和性别均对微生物群组成有影响,而居住地点对微生物群多样性的影响较小。有趣的是,微生物群的变化伴随着包括IL-10和IL-6在内的几种不同细胞因子血清表达的改变,这两种细胞因子在性别和衰老方面也存在差异调节。我们发现IL-10和IL-6均在CD5+B-1细胞中pSTAT-3的组成性表达中发挥作用,而CD5+B-1细胞已知可调节微生物群。此外,还发现细胞因子表达与显著丰富的微生物之间存在显著相关性。基于这些结果,我们得出结论,衰老小鼠的肠道微生物群会发生与性别相关的改变,并具有独特的细胞因子谱。此外,B-1细胞与微生物群之间存在显著的相互作用,这种相互作用受到衰老的性别依赖性影响。总之,这些结果说明了性别、衰老、免疫、居住地点和肠道微生物群之间复杂的相互关系。