Abstract
The interrelationship between endogenous microbiota, the immune system, and tissue regeneration is an area of intense research due to its potential therapeutic applications. We investigated this relationship in Schmidtea mediterranea, a model organism capable of regenerating any and all of its adult tissues. Microbiome characterization revealed a high Bacteroidetes to Proteobacteria ratio in healthy animals. Perturbations eliciting an expansion of Proteobacteria coincided with ectopic lesions and tissue degeneration. The culture of these bacteria yielded a strain of Pseudomonas capable of inducing progressive tissue degeneration. RNAi screening uncovered a TAK1 innate immune signaling module underlying compromised tissue homeostasis and regeneration during infection. TAK1/MKK/p38 signaling mediated opposing regulation of apoptosis during infection versus normal tissue regeneration. Given the complex role of inflammation in either hindering or supporting reparative wound healing and regeneration, this invertebrate model provides a basis for dissecting the duality of evolutionarily conserved inflammatory signaling in complex, multi-organ adult tissue regeneration.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16793.001
Regeneration, the ability to replace missing or damaged tissue, has fascinated biologists for years and has inspired a new direction for the medical field. Figuring out how some animals easily accomplish this while others do not may help us to develop new therapies that enhance regeneration in humans.
Previous work has indicated that the immune system, which is normally used to defend the body against bacteria, plays an important but complicated role in regeneration. By studying the relationships between bacteria, the immune system and regeneration in simple systems, it may be possible to see how their interactions either support or prevent the replacement of lost tissues.
Flatworms called planaria can regenerate all of their tissues. Arnold et al. have now investigated what bacteria exist in planaria, how the planarian immune system responds to these bacteria, and how this response affects regeneration. The results reveal that the two main types of bacteria that are present in planaria are also found in humans. In fact, conditions that encourage the growth and spread of one of these types of bacteria (called Proteobacteria, many of which can make humans ill) damaged the worms and prevented them from regenerating.
Arnold et al. then looked to see if the worms had genes that were similar to human genes that control the key immune process of inflammation, and found evidence of several such genes. Reducing the activity levels of these genes enabled worms that had been infected with Proteobacteria to regenerate again. However, these genes only seem to be responsible for regeneration when the planaria are infected with bacteria. Thus, planaria could be used as a simple model to discover how changes in resident bacteria can be detected by the immune system and affect the ability to regenerate tissues.
Future studies could use planaria to identify even more genes that control regeneration during infection. Also, since the main types of bacteria in planaria are similar to those in humans, planaria may help us to learn how animals can properly balance the levels of these bacteria in order to remain healthy.
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16793.002
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