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Published on: October 27, 2017
The Gut Microbial System Responds to Retinal Injury and Modulates the Outcomes by Regulating Innate Immune Activation
Xuexue Cui1, Caijiao Yi1,2, Jian Liu1
1Aier Academy of Ophthalmology, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to understand how the gut microbial system responds to retinal injury.
Methods:
Adult C57BL/6J mice were subjected to retinal laser burns or hypotony-induced retinal detachment (RD). One, 4, and 24 hours later, gut permeability (8 male mice and 8 female mice) was assessed using Evan's blue assay and the expression of ZO-1 in intestinal epithelial cells was examined by immunofluorescence. Circulating immune cells were evaluated by flow cytometry. The feces from control and lasered mice (n = 8) were collected under strict sterile conditions and processed for 16S DNA paired-end sequencing using the Illumina platform. The impact of gut dysbiosis on retinal wound healing was evaluated following treatment with Peros antibiotics (n = 8). Retinal pathologies were examined by immunohistochemistry.
Results:
Retinal laser injury significantly altered gut microbial profiles within 1 hour (β-diversity, multi-response permutation procedure [MRPP], P = 0.05). The abundance of Lignipirellula and Faecalibacterium was 100- and 6.67-fold lower, and the abundance of Akkermansia and Colidextribacter was 3.65- and 17.72-fold higher than non-lasered controls, respectively. Retinal laser burns and RD, not sham surgery, increased gut permeability at 1 hour and 4 hours by 3.82- and 24.76-fold, respectively, disrupted intestinal epithelial ZO-1 expression, accompanied by an increased population of circulating neutrophils and monocytes (P < 0.01) at 1 hour and 4 hours. Antibiotic treatment attenuated laser-/RD-induced gut permeability and the increased neutrophils and monocytes (in RD, P < 0.05). Antibiotic treatment also significantly reduced the severity of laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV; P < 0.001) and RD-mediated photoreceptor apoptosis (P < 0.01), and suppressed Gr-1+ neutrophils (CNV, P < 0.001) and Iba-1+ cell infiltration (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
A retina-gut axis exists. Retinal injury induces rapid gut microbial alteration, which in turn modulates innate immune cell activation and regulates the wound healing response.
