Project description:Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic progressive and often fatal disease. The pathogenesis is characterized by aberrant repair and remodeling of the lung parenchyma resulting in loss of physiological homeostasis, respiratory failure and death. The immune response in pulmonary fibrosis is dysregulated. The gut microbiome is a key regulator of immunity. The role of the gut microbiome in regulating the pulmonary immunity in lung fibrosis is unknown. Here, we have utilized a strategy of cage randomization to study how the horizontal transmission of gut microbiome influences the development of pulmonary fibrosis.
Project description:P. aeruginosa was cultured in a MultiScreen-Mesh plate, which has a filter at the bottom of the wells. The plate was immersed in either in medium alone (control) or in medium inoculated with a mixture of five bacterial strains commonly found in cystic fibrosis sputum (\"microbiome\"). The filter prevented physical contact between P. aeruginosa and the other bacteria, yet soluble products could migrate through the filter into the P. aeruginosa biofilm. P. aeruginosa was then allowed to form biofilms in the wells for 72h, then the biofilm was harvested and a fraction of the harvested cells were used for re-inoculations. This was repeated for 18 cycles for a total of 54 days.
