Gut Microbiota Promotes Tumor Growth in Mice by Modulating Immune Response

We studied the effects of gut microbiome depletion by oral antibiotics on tumor growth in subcutaneous and liver metastases model of pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and melanoma. Gut microbiome depletion significantly reduced tumor burden in all the models tested. However, depletion of gut microbiome did not reduce tumor growth in Rag1-knockout mice, which lack mature T and B cells. Flowcytometry analyses demonstrated that gut microbiome depletion led to significant increase in interferon gamma-producing T cells with corresponding decrease in interleukin 17A and interleukin 10-producing T cells.

Source: Gastroenterology - April 6, 2018 Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Vrishketan Sethi, Saba Kurtom, Mohammad Tarique, Shweta Lavania, Zoe Malchiodi, Leonor Hellmund, Li Zhang, Umakant Sharma, Bhuwan Giri, Bharti Garg, Anthony Ferantella, Selwyn M. Vickers, Sulagna Banerjee, Rajinder Dawra, Sabita Roy, Sundaram Ramakrishnan Source Type: research