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The microbiome—the revealing of a long time unbeknownst factor for outcome in murine models of graft-versus-host disease

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 56, pages 1777–1783 (2021)Cite this article

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The microbiome of the intestinal tract has been shown to have an extensive role in host health and various diseases [1]. It is highly diverse in people living in developing countries and contains larger population of beneficial bacteria due to poor hygiene conditions and lifestyle. In contrast, people living in developed countries have a less diverse microbiome due to western lifestyle, and moreover the microbiome is adoptive as shown by alterations of the microbiome in immigrants from South Asian to Western countries [2]. The microbiome has shown enormous impact on host physiology and seems as an important driver in health and disease [3, 4]. Therefore, it nowadays needs to be included in our understanding of systems biology, and research cannot be limited to nonmicrobial aspects of pathophysiology. Furthermore, the healthy microbial composition is not well understood and “one person’s healthy microbiome might not be healthy in another context” [5].

Murine models of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) have been a major translational research tool to explore GVHD pathophysiology and have significantly contributed to its understanding [6,7,8]. However, for decades, due to lack of knowledge and lack of current molecular technology, the microbiome was ignored in this field, and only over the last few years, the interest for the microbiome in GVHD has rapidly grown [9,10,11,12].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology & Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    Reena Kumari, Senthilnathan Palaniyandi & Gerhard Carl Hildebrandt

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  1. Reena Kumari
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  2. Senthilnathan Palaniyandi
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  3. Gerhard Carl Hildebrandt
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Correspondence to Gerhard Carl Hildebrandt.

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Kumari, R., Palaniyandi, S. & Hildebrandt, G.C. The microbiome—the revealing of a long time unbeknownst factor for outcome in murine models of graft-versus-host disease. Bone Marrow Transplant 56, 1777–1783 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-021-01325-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-021-01325-7

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