Establishment of an immune regulation of T cell function through gut microbiota modulation

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25461488
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Collagenous pathology/Allergology
• Research Institution: St. Marianna University School of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Shimizu Jun 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (30509964)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Takai Kenji 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, (客員)教授 (60121167) ; Fujiwara Naruyoshi 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (50365425) ; Arimitsu Nagisa 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (40408688) ; Takada Erika 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, 研究技術員 (90398959) ; Hirotsu Chieko 聖マリアンナ医科大学, 医学部, 研究技術員 (90647174)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 腸内細菌叢メタゲノミクス / T細胞 / ベーチェット病

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have reported that T cell differentiation was skewed in the peripheral blood of patients with Behcet’s disease (BD). We hypothesized that gut microbiota of BD patients involved in the skewed T cell differentiation from a review of the literature. We conducted metagenomic analysis of microbiota using next generation sequencer. We showed that the phylum Actinobacteria and the genus Bifidobacterium were prevalent in BD patients with statistical significance. The order Clostridia and the genus Megamonas were prevalent in normal individuals with statistical significance. Bacterial diversity of each sample was comparable in BD patients and normal individuals and the two group’s plots of PcoA had a significant distance as beta diversity. These data suggest that the compositional changes of gut microbes may be one type of dysbiosis (unfavorable microbiota alteration) in patients with BD. The dysbiosis may have an association with the pathophysiology of BD.

Free Research Field

内科学