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Gut microbiome–derived metabolites modulate intestinal epithelial cell damage and mitigate graft-versus-host disease

Nature Immunology volume 17, pages 505–513 (2016)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 20 September 2016

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Abstract

The effect of alterations in intestinal microbiota on microbial metabolites and on disease processes such as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is not known. Here we carried out an unbiased analysis to identify previously unidentified alterations in gastrointestinal microbiota–derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) after allogeneic bone marrow transplant (allo-BMT). Alterations in the amount of only one SCFA, butyrate, were observed only in the intestinal tissue. The reduced butyrate in CD326+ intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) after allo-BMT resulted in decreased histone acetylation, which was restored after local administration of exogenous butyrate. Butyrate restoration improved IEC junctional integrity, decreased apoptosis and mitigated GVHD. Furthermore, alteration of the indigenous microbiota with 17 rationally selected strains of high butyrate–producing Clostridia also decreased GVHD. These data demonstrate a heretofore unrecognized role of microbial metabolites and suggest that local and specific alteration of microbial metabolites has direct salutary effects on GVHD target tissues and can mitigate disease severity.

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Figure 1: Allo-BMT reduces amounts of intracellular butyrate in IECs.
Figure 2: Loss of butyrate decreases histone acetylation in IECs.
Figure 3: Intragastric gavage with butyrate enhances uptake of the SCFA and histone acetylation in IECs.
Figure 4: Donor Treg cells are dispensable for GVHD protection.
Figure 5: Butyrate treatment enhances the IEC barrier.
Figure 6: Rationally altering the commensal microbiota reduces GVHD severity.

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  • 26 August 2016

    In the version of this article initially published, the middle initial (C) for the sixteenth author was incorrect. The correct author name should be Thomas M. Schmidt (and the corresponding initials in the Author Contributions section should be T.M.S.). The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, grants HL-090775 and HL-128046 (to P.R.); National Cancer Institute, grant CA-173878 (to P.R.)). Metabolomic studies were performed through the Molecular Phenotyping Core, Michigan Nutrition and Obesity Center (grant DK089503 (to S.P.)) and Michigan Regional Metabolomics Resource Core (grant DK097153 (to S.P.)). We acknowledge use of the Microscopy & Image-analysis Laboratory (MIL) of the University of Michigan's Biomedical Research Core Facilities for preparation of samples and images. Support for the MIL core is provided by the University of Michigan Cancer Center (NIH grant CA46592) and the University of Michigan Gut Peptide Research Center (NIH grant DK34933).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Nathan D Mathewson, Robert Jenq, Anna V Mathew, Mark Koenigsknecht, Alan Hanash, Vincent B Young, Subramaniam Pennathur and Marcel van den Brink: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Nathan D Mathewson, Tomomi Toubai, Katherine Oravecz-Wilson, Shin-Rong Wu, Yaping Sun, Corinne Rossi, Hideaki Fujiwara & Pavan Reddy

  2. Graduate Program in Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Nathan D Mathewson & Shin-Rong Wu

  3. Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA

    Robert Jenq, Alan Hanash, Yusuke Shono, Caroline Lindemans, Marco Calafiore & Marcel van den Brink

  4. Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Anna V Mathew, Jaeman Byun & Subramaniam Pennathur

  5. Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Mark Koenigsknecht, Thomas M Schmidt & Vincent B Young

  6. RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan

    Kenya Honda

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Contributions

N.D.M. designed experiments, performed experiments, analyzed data and wrote the paper. A.V.M. and M.K. performed experiments and analyzed data. R.J. and A.H. designed and performed experiments. T.T., K.O.-W., S.-R.W., Y.S., C.R., H.F., J.B., Y.S., C.L. and M.C. performed experiments. T.M.S., V.B.Y. and M.v.d.B. wrote the paper. K.H. provided reagents and wrote the paper. S.P. analyzed data and wrote the paper. P.R. designed experiments, analyzed data and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Pavan Reddy.

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Integrated supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1 Allogeneic BMT reduces amounts of intracellular butyrate in IECs.

(a) Schematic of fatty acid analysis. Animal cages of naive animals and those receiving syngeneic or allogeneic BMT were exchanged on day 3 relative to transplant. All groups were killed on day 7 and day 21 (Fig. S2). Homogenized samples were normalized and analyzed via gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Heatmap of fatty acid profiles (short and long chain) of all animals combined, that were killed 7 days following syngeneic (BALB/c → BALB/c) or allogeneic (C57BL/6J → BALB/c) transplant in the (b) intestinal luminal contents (stool) and (d) in the intestinal tissue. n = 9 – 10 animals per group. (c) Butyrate concentration was not different in the serum, spleen, and liver of naive animals or recipients of syngeneic or allogeneic BMT.

Supplementary Figure 2 Reduced amounts of intracellular butyrate in IECs after BMT.

(a) Fatty acid levels (short and long chain) 21 days following transplant in the (left) intestinal luminal contents (stool) and in the (right) intestinal tissue. Quantifications of the short chain fatty acids acetate, propionate, and butyrate are shown below representative heatmaps; n = 5 animals per group.

Supplementary Figure 3 Allo-BMT reduces histone acetylation and receptor expression in IECs.

(a) Protein expression of acetyl-histone H4 and densitometric analysis (below blots) normalized to presence of ɑ-tubulin in CD326+ purified intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) 7 days following syngeneic (BALB/c → BALB/c) or allogeneic (C57BL/6J → BALB/c) BMT. (b) Gene expression and (c) protein level of GPR43 in IECs (CD326+) of syngeneic or allogeneic BMT recipients 21 days following transplant. (d) Gene expression of Slc5a8 (left) and Gpr43 (right) in IECs (CD326+) 7 days following syngeneic or allogeneic BMT. Representative immunoblots; densitometric analysis of three similar experiments combined, are shown below blots. (e) Primary IECs (CD326+) cultured in the presence or absence of inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ (40ng/ml) or TNF (500ng/ml) for 6 hours. (f) Schema of butyrate entry and metabolism in to the intestinal epithelial cell. Butyrate enters the epithelium from the lumen and subsequently undergoes mitochondrial β-oxidation. The product acetyl-CoA enters the tricarboxylic cycle. The butyrate, citrate, and malate pools were sampled for this study to assess butyrate metabolic flux. (g)-(h) MFA showing 13C label incorporation in tricarboxylic acid metabolite pools of syngeneic and allogeneic mice fed a bolus (2 g/kg) of 13C2-Butyrate or non-labeled 12C-Butyrate, n=6 mice per group. (g) Percent incorporation of 13C in succinate of the large intestine tissue. (h) Left panel represents succinate and right panel represents malate 13C-label incorporation in small and large intestine tissues combined. ND = not detected.

Supplementary Figure 4 Intragastric butyrate increases survival of allo-BMT recipients.

(a) Improved survival was observed using a second model of syngeneic (C57BL/6J → C57BL/6J) and allogeneic (C3H.sw → C57BL/6J) BMT indicating strain independent effects. Each recipient received 2 x 106 T cells and 5 x 106 bone marrow cells following lethal irradiation (1000 cGy) on day -1; syngeneic n=6, n=12 per allogeneic group. (b) Liver and intestinal histopathology was decreased 21 days post-BMT in recipients of allogeneic BMT treated with intragastric butyrate in minor antigen mismatch model. (c) Significantly decreased weight loss (d) and significantly improved survival was observed in allogeneic recipients of parent into F1 BMT model (C57BL/6J → B6D2F1) that received butyrate treatment. Each recipient received 50 x 106 whole splenocytes and 5 x 106 bone marrow cells; syngeneic n=5, n=10 per allogeneic group. (e) Significantly improved survival was still observed in recipients of high donor allo-T cell dose (2.5 x 106) that were treated with intragastric butyrate (10 mg/kg). Each recipient received either syngeneic (C57BL/6J → C57BL/6J) or allogeneic (C57BL/6J → Balb/c) donor T cells and 5 x 106 bone marrow; syngeneic n=5, n=10 per allogeneic group. (f) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of intestines, isolated from recipients of syngeneic (BALB/c → BALB/c) or allogeneic (C57BL/6J → BALB/c) transplant with or without daily intragastric gavage of butyrate for duration of experiment; all samples were isolated 21 days following BMT and stained with ruthenium red (0.1%). Increased ruthenium red leakage observed in recipients of allogeneic transplant treated with vehicle compared to butyrate treatment or syngeneic BMT; arrows indicate cell-cell interface. (g) Total CD45+ intestinal cell numbers harvested were not different between recipients of allogeneic (C57BL/6J → BALB/c) BMT treated with butyrate or vehicle. (h) Treg cells were depleted by i.p. injection of diphtheria toxin (10 µg/kg) on day -2 and day -1 of donors prior to transplant. (i) Decreased weight loss in BMT recipients of Treg depleted (B6 DT.Treg) donor T cells (0.5 x 106) treated with butyrate. (j) HAT activity was not altered in T cells of the spleen 21 days following syngeneic or allogeneic BMT. All BMTs had n=10 per group.

Supplementary Figure 5 The IEC barrier is enhanced by butyrate treatment.

(a) Butyrate treatment (1mM) resulted in increased expression of junctional claudins (1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, and 18) in cultured primary intestinal organoids, compared to control. (b) Decreased gene expression of the pro-apoptotic proteins Bak1 (left) and Bax (right) and (c) increased expression of the junctional protein Occludin (Ocln) in IECs (CD326+) treated with vehicle or butyrate 1mM.

Supplementary Figure 6 Rationally altering the commensal microbiota.

(a) Detailed presence of bacterial strains found in animals colonized with 17-strain cocktail. 16S rRNA-encoding gene sequencing of stool for percent of 17 Clostridal strains in total GI community on day -1 and day +35, relative to allogeneic (C57BL/6J → BALB/c) BMT on day 0. Vehicle or 17-strain cocktail were administered to recipients every other day via intragastric gavage beginning day -14 and continued through day +21, relative to BMT. ND = not detected. (b) Antibiotic mixture (ampicillin 5 mg, metronidazole 4 mg, clindamycin 5 mg, and vancomycin 5 mg) was administered by intragastric gavage for 6 days to target obligate anaerobes of C57BL/6J (H-2b) mice. Untreated mice or mice that received antibiotic mixture, were used as recipients of allogeneic BMT (B10.BR → C57BL/6J).

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Supplementary Figures 1–6 and Supplementary Table 2 (PDF 2464 kb)

Supplementary Table 1: qPCR primers

Primers used with gene names indicated. (XLSX 30 kb)

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Mathewson, N., Jenq, R., Mathew, A. et al. Gut microbiome–derived metabolites modulate intestinal epithelial cell damage and mitigate graft-versus-host disease. Nat Immunol 17, 505–513 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3400

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