Project description:Early life gut microbiota plays a critical role in gut development, maturation of the immune response and protection against enteric pathogens such as Salmonella. In this study, we investigated how different gut microbiota compositions influence the host transcriptomic signatures and susceptibility to Salmonella infection in chicks.
Project description:Macrophages are important cells involved in infections responses. They are mediators of gastritis in acute Helicobacter pylori (Hp) Infection and to identify how Hp affects macrophages response to infection we measured miRNA expression after macrophages Hp infection.
Project description:In this study we investigated whether gut microbiota profile of Italian healthy volunteers could differ based on their geaographical origin. To this purpose, fecal samples were collected from 31 healthy individuals living in 3 different italian regions (Lombardy, North; Lazio, Center; Apulia, South) and their respective microbiota profiles were analyzed employing 16S metagenomic sequencing method. This study identifies differences in the gut microbiota content and richness among individuals with the same ethnicity coming from three different Italian regions.
Project description:Insect gut microbiota plays important roles in acquiring nutrition, preventing pathogens infection, immune responses, and communicating with the environment. Gut microbiota can be affected by some external factors such as foods, temperature, and antibiotics. Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is an important destructive pest of grain crops all over the world. The function of gut microbiota in S. frugiperda remains to be investigated. In this study, we fed the S. frugiperda with the antibiotic mixture (penicillin, gentamicin, rifampicin, and streptomycin) to perturb the gut microbiota, and further examined the effect of dysbiosis in gut microbiota on the gene expression of S. frugiperda by RNA sequencing. We found the composition and diversity of the gut bacterial community were changed in S. frugiperda after antibiotics treatmen, and the expression of genes related to energy and metabolic process were affected after antibiotics exposure in S. frugiperda. Our work will help understand the role of gut microbiota in insects.
Project description:We have previously demonstrated that the gut microbiota can play a role in the pathogenesis of conditions associated with exposure to environmental pollutants. It is well accepted that diets high in fermentable fibers such as inulin can beneficially modulate the gut microbiota and lessen the severity of pro-inflammatory diseases. Therefore, we aimed to test the hypothesis that hyperlipidemic mice fed a diet enriched with inulin would be protected from the pro-inflammatory toxic effects of PCB 126.
Project description:Maturation of the gut microbiota coincides with neurodevelopmental processes such as myelination, essential for efficient neural signal transmission. While its role in adult prefrontal cortex (PFC) myelination is known, effects on early-life myelin formation, growth, and integrity remain unclear. Here, we track gene expression in the PFC of germ-free (GF) and non-germ-free (conventional) mice. Alongside metabolomics (HP/LC) from the same region across early life development, in males and females. Metabolomics data available here <URL PLACEHOLDER> In GF mice, we observed sex- and age-dependent alterations in pathways linked to neuronal activity and myelination, with myelin-related transcriptomic changes correlating with functional shifts in neurotransmission- and metabolism-related metabolites over time. Myelin growth and integrity were also affected in a sex- and time-dependent manner. As microglia regulate neuronal activity and engulf myelin, we examined microbiota-microglia interactions and found altered expression of genes involved in microglia maturation and synaptic pruning in both species. In zebrafish larvae, the microbiota influenced the spatial distribution of microglia and oligodendrocytes within the brain and spinal cord. These findings reveal conserved microbiota-mediated modulation of neuronal activity, myelination, and glial maturation in early life, providing a foundation for future studies into these mechanisms. These files contain the RNAseq data underlying this study.
Project description:The gut microbiota influences systemic immunity and the function of distal tissues, including the brain, liver, skin, lung, and muscle. However, the role of the gut microbiota in the foreign body response (FBR) and fibrosis is largely unexplored. To investigate this connection, we perturbed the homeostasis of the murine gut microbiota via infection with the pathogenic bacterial species enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) and implanted particulate material (mean particle size <600 μm) of the synthetic polymer polycaprolactone (PCL) into a distal muscle injury. ETBF infection in mice led to increased neutrophil and γδ T cell infiltration into the PCL implant site. ETBF infection alone promoted systemic inflammation, increased levels of neutrophils in lymphoid tissues, and altered skeletal muscle gene expression. At the PCL implant site, we found significant changes in the transcriptome of sorted stromal cells between infected and control mice, including differences related to ECM components such as proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans. However, we did not observe ETBF-induced differences in fibrosis levels. These results demonstrate the ability of the gut microbiota to mediate long-distance effects such as immune and stromal responses to a distal biomaterial implant.