The human commensal Bacteroides fragilis binds intestinal mucin
Abstract
The mammalian gastrointestinal tract harbors a vast microbial ecosystem, known as the microbiota, which benefits host biology. Bacteroides fragilis is an important anaerobic gut commensal of humans that prevents and cures intestinal inflammation. We wished to elucidate aspects of gut colonization employed by B. fragilis. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed on colonic tissue sections from B. fragilis and Escherichia coli dual-colonized gnotobiotic mice. Epifluorescence imaging reveals that both E. coli and B. fragilis are found in the lumen of the colon, but only B. fragilis is found in the mucosal layer. This observation suggests that physical association with intestinal mucus could be a possible mechanism of gut colonization by B. fragilis. We investigated this potential interaction using an in vitro mucus binding assay and show here that B. fragilis binds to murine colonic mucus. We further demonstrate that B. fragilis specifically and quantitatively binds to highly purified mucins (the major constituent in intestinal mucus) using flow cytometry analysis of fluorescently labeled purified murine and porcine mucins. These results suggest that interactions between B. fragilis and intestinal mucin may play a critical role during host-bacterial symbiosis.
Additional Information
© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. Received 28 October 2010; revised 14 May 2011; Accepted 16 May 2011. Available online 2 June 2011. We are grateful to Dr. William Clemons, Jr. (Caltech) and Justin Chartron (Caltech) for help with mucin purification. S.K.M. is a Searle Scholar.Work in the laboratory of the authors is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (DK078938, DK083633), Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America to S.K.M.Attached Files
Accepted Version - nihms307781.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC3163789
- Eprint ID
- 27253
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2011.05.017
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20111017-112938655
- NIH
- DK078938
- NIH
- DK083633
- Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
- Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America
- Created
-
2011-10-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field