Depletion of Foxp3 + regulatory T cells is accompanied by an increase in the relative abundance of Firmicutes in the murine gut microbiome

A reciprocal interaction exists between the gut microbiota and the immune system. Regulatory T (Treg) cells are important for controlling immune responses and for maintaining the intestinal homeostasis but their precise influence on the gut microbiota is unclear. We studied the effects of Treg cell depletion on inflammation of the intestinal mucosa and analysed the gut microbiota before and after depletion of Treg cells using the DEpletion of REGulatory T cells (DEREG) mouse model. DNA was extracted from stool samples of DEREG mice and wild-type littermates at different time-points before and after diphtheria toxin application to deplete Treg cells in DEREG mice. The V3/V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used for studying the gut microbiota with Illumina MiSeq paired ends sequencing. Multidimensional scaling separated the majority of gut microbiota samples from late time-points after Treg cell depletion in DEREG mice from samples of early time-points before Treg cell depletion in these mice and from gut microbiota samples of wild-type mice. Treg cell depletion in DEREG mice was accompanied by an increase in the relative abundance of the phylum Firmicutes and by intestinal inflammation in DEREG mice 20 days after Treg cell depletion, indicating that Treg cells influence the gut microbiota composition. In addition, the variables cage, breeding and experiment number were associated with differences in the gut microbiota composition and these variables should be respected in murine studies.