Role of the Gut Microbiome in Modulating Arthritis Progression in Mice

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 30594
• Main Authors: Liu, Xiaofei, Zeng, Benhua, Zhang, Juan, Li, Wenxia, Mou, Fangxiang, Wang, Heng, Zou, Qinghua, Zhong, Bing, Wu, Like, Wei, Hong, Fang, Yongfei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.08.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 13/31; 45; 45/91; 631/326/2565/2134; 692/4023/1670/498; Animals; Arthritis; Arthritis, Experimental - chemically induced; Arthritis, Experimental - immunology; Arthritis, Experimental - microbiology; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; CD8 antigen; Collagen; Dendritic cells; Digestive system; Disease Models, Animal; Disease Progression; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; DNA, Ribosomal - genetics; Environmental factors; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Genetics; Germ-Free Life; Germfree; Helper cells; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Interleukin 17; Interleukin-17 - blood; Intestinal microflora; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes B; Lymphocytes T; Mice; Mice, Inbred DBA; Microbiota; multidisciplinary; Phylogeny; Rheumatoid arthritis; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; Rodents; rRNA 16S; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sequence Analysis, DNA - methods; Spleen
• DOI: 10.1038/srep30594
• ISSN: 2045-2322

Genetics alone cannot explain most cases of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Thus, investigating environmental factors such as the gut microbiota may provide new insights into the initiation and progression of RA. In this study, we performed 16S rRNA sequencing to characterise the gut microbiota of DBA1 mice that did or did not develop arthritis after induction with collagen. We found that divergence in the distribution of microbiota after induction was pronounced and significant. Mice susceptible to collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) showed enriched operational taxonomic units (OTUs) affiliated with the genus Lactobacillus as the dominant genus prior to arthritis onset. With disease development, the abundance of OTUs affiliated with the families Bacteroidaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and S24-7 increased significantly in CIA-susceptible mice. Notably, germ-free mice conventionalized with the microbiota from CIA-susceptible mice showed a higher frequency of arthritis induction than those conventionalized with the microbiota from CIA-resistant mice. Consistently, the concentration of the cytokine interleukin-17 in serum and the proportions of CD8+T cells and Th17 lymphocytes in the spleen were significantly higher in the former group, whereas the abundances of dendritic cells, B cells, and Treg cells in the spleen were significantly lower. Our results suggest that the gut microbiome influences arthritis susceptibility.