Gut Microbiome-Trained T Cells Help Heal Injured Muscles and Liver
Studies in mice by Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers suggest how a class of regulatory T cells (Tregs) that are produced in the gut also play a role in repairing injured muscles and mending damaged livers.
The research found that gut microbiota fuels the production of, and act as the training camp for, a class of immune cells—RORγ+ Tregs—that are recruited to heal muscle injury. The study findings also indicated that these same gut immune cells help repair injured fatty livers. The collective results suggest that these Tregs act as immune healers that go on patrol around the body and respond to distress signals from distant sites of injury.
The new insights point to a broader role for gut immune cells—which have long been known as guardians of intestinal health—in repairing damage outside of the gut environment. The findings support a growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of gut microbiota in regulating various physiologic functions beyond the gut, and suggest that gut immune cells may have a wider role in taming inflammation and healing damage that extends beyond the intestines.
The team cautions that their findings are based on experiments in mice and remain to be replicated in larger animals and in humans. However, they do raise interesting possibilities about harnessing the power of gut microbes to enhance recovery from injury. Another possibility, said research co-lead Diane Mathis, PhD, professor of immunology at the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, is the potential that the new findings could inform the design of treatments for fatty liver disease, a common condition in which accumulation of fat in the liver leads to liver cell damage and death.
“Our observations indicate that gut microbes drive the production of a class of regulatory T cells that are constantly exiting the gut and act as sentries that sense damage at distant sites in the body and then act as emissaries to repair that damage,” said Mathis, who is senior author of the team’s study published in Immunology at Cell Press Journal and titled, “The gut microbiota promotes distal tissue regeneration via RORγ+ regulatory T cell emissaries.”
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2023.01.033
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