Journal article
Heterochronic faecal transplantation boosts gut germinal centres in aged mice
Marisa Stebegg, Alyssa Silva-Cayetano, Silvia Innocentin, Timothy P Jenkins, Cinzia Cantacessi, Colin Gilbert, Michelle A Linterman
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2019
Abstract
Ageing is a complex multifactorial process associated with a plethora of disorders, which contribute significantly to morbidity worldwide. One of the organs significantly affected by age is the gut. Age-dependent changes of the gut-associated microbiome have been linked to increased frailty and systemic inflammation. This change in microbial composition with age occurs in parallel with a decline in function of the gut immune system; however, it is not clear whether there is a causal link between the two. Here we report that the defective germinal centre reaction in Peyer's patches of aged mice can be rescued by faecal transfers from younger adults into aged mice and by immunisations with cho..
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Awarded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Awarded by European Research Council
Awarded by European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme "ENLIGHT-TEN" under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant
Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr Geoff Butcher, Dr Dario Valenzano and Jens Seidel for feedback on this manuscript. We acknowledge the contribution of the Babraham Institute Biological Support Unit staff, who performed in vivo treatments of our animals and took care of animal husbandry. We thank the staff of the Babraham Flow Cytometry Facility for their technical support. The authors are grateful to Jonathan Clark and Melanie Stammers for their input on the experiments with ageing animals. This study was supported by funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBS/E/B/000C0407, BBS/E/B/000C0427 and the Campus Capability Core Grant to the Babraham Institute), the European Research Council (637801 TWILIGHT), and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme "ENLIGHT-TEN" under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No.: 675395. T.P.J. is recipient of a PhD scholarship from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of the United Kingdom. Research in the C.C. laboratory is funded by grants from the Isaac Newton Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust/Wellcome Trust/University of Cambridge joint research grant scheme and by the Royal Society (UK).