Effect of gluten-free diet and antibiotics on murine gut microbiota and immune response to tetanus vaccination

Pernille Kihl, Lukasz Krych, Ling Deng, Lars H. Hansen, Karsten Buschard, Søren Skov, Dennis S. Nielsen, Axel Kornerup Hansen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of a gluten-free diet and/or antibiotics on tetanus vaccine induced immunoglobulin G titers and immune cell levels in BALB/c mice. The gluten-free diet was associated with a reduced anti-tetanus IgG response, and it increased the relative abundance of the anti-inflammatory Bifidobacterium significantly in some of the mice. Antibiotics also led to gut microbiota changes and lower initial vaccine titer. After a second vaccination, neither gluten-free diet nor antibiotics reduced the titers. In the spleen, the gluten-free diet significantly increased regulatory T cell (Treg) fractions, CD4+ T cell activation, and tolerogenic dendritic cell fractions and activation, which extend the downregulating effect of the Treg. Therefore, the systemic effect of the gluten-free diet seems mainly tolerogenic. Antibiotics reduced the fractions of CD4+ T and B cells in the mesenteric lymph nodes. These results suggest that vaccine response in mice is under influence of their diet, the gut microbiota and the interplay between them. However, a gluten-free diet seems to work through mechanisms different from those induced by antibiotics. Therefore, diet should be considered when testing vaccines in mice and developing vaccines for humans.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0266719
JournalPlos One
Volume17
Issue number4
Number of pages21
ISSN1932-6203
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

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Copyright: © 2022 Kihl et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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