Reversible Microbial Colonization of Germ-free Mice Reveals the Dynamics of IgA Immune Responses

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2010 Jun 26

PMID 20576892

Citations 383

Authors

Siegfried Hapfelmeier

Melissa A E Lawson

Emma Slack

Jorum K Kirundi

Maaike Stoel

Mathias Heikenwalder

Julia Cahenzli

Yuliya Velykoredko

Maria L Balmer

Kathrin Endt

Markus B Geuking

Roy Curtiss 3rd

Kathy D McCoy

Andrew J Macpherson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The lower intestine of adult mammals is densely colonized with nonpathogenic (commensal) microbes. Gut bacteria induce protective immune responses, which ensure host-microbial mutualism. The continuous presence of commensal intestinal bacteria has made it difficult to study mucosal immune dynamics. Here, we report a reversible germ-free colonization system in mice that is independent of diet or antibiotic manipulation. A slow (more than 14 days) onset of a long-lived (half-life over 16 weeks), highly specific anticommensal immunoglobulin A (IgA) response in germ-free mice was observed. Ongoing commensal exposure in colonized mice rapidly abrogated this response. Sequential doses lacked a classical prime-boost effect seen in systemic vaccination, but specific IgA induction occurred as a stepwise response to current bacterial exposure, such that the antibody repertoire matched the existing commensal content.

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