AUTHOR=Cheng Jiaheng , Yuan Yushan , Zhao Fang , Chen Jianwei , Chen Peng , Li Ying , Yan Xia , Luo Chenglong , Shu Dingming , Qu Hao , Ji Jian TITLE=Thymic T-Cell Production Is Associated With Changes in the Gut Microbiota in Young Chicks JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.700603 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2021.700603 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Increasing studies show that gut microbiota play a central role in immunity, although the impact of the microbiota on mediation of thymic T cells throughout life is not well understood. Chickens have been shown to be a valuable model for studying basic immunology. Here, we show that changes in the gut microbiota are associated with the development of thymic T cells in young chickens. Our results showed that T-cell numbers in newborn chicks sharply increased from day 0 and peaked at day 49. Interestingly, the α-diversity score pattern of change in gut microbiota also increased after day 0 and continued to increase until day 49. We found that early antibiotic treatment resulted in a dramatic reduction in gut alpha diversity: principal component analysis (PCA) showed that antibiotic treatment resulted in a different cluster from the controls on days 9 and 49. In the antibiotic-treated chickens, we identified eight significantly different (