The Microenvironment of Injured Mucosa Stimulates a Local Pro-restitutive Microbiota

Restitution of mucosal injury involves induced and coordinated proliferation and migration of intestinal epithelial cells. The commensal microbiota of the intestine is integral to the repair of damaged intestinal mucosa. N-formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) are widely expressed pattern recognition receptors that specifically respond to host-derived and microbial peptides in a redox dependent manner. However, little is known about the host-microbiota crosstalk mediated by FPRs during repair of gut mucosal injuries. We hypothesized that distinct members of the gut microbiota preferentially colonize the restitutive mucosa to promote wound repair processes in a FPR1-dependent fashion. For this purpose, defined mechanical wounds were inflicted in the mouse distal colon by using an endoscope and forceps. High throughput sequencing of the V4 region of 16s rRNA gene of the bacteria harvested from mucosal wounds revealed a spatiotemporal shift in the composition and diversity of microbiota. We found several FPR1 and ...