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Comment
. 2023 Jun;25(6):800-801.
doi: 10.1038/s41556-023-01153-5.

B cell senescence takes guts

Bennett G Childs  1   2 , Sara I Graves  2 , Darren J Baker  3   4   5   6
Affiliations
Comment

B cell senescence takes guts

Bennett G Childs et al. Nat Cell Biol. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Accumulation of senescent cells and compositional changes in gut microbiota have been independently reported to occur as a function of age. A study now suggests that these two seemingly disparate processes are more intimately linked than previously appreciated via a B-cell-IgA-microbiota axis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

B.G.C. and D.J.B. have a potential financial interest related to this research. They are a co-inventors on patents held by Mayo Clinic, patent applications licensed to or filed by Unity Biotechnology, and Unity Biotechnology shareholders. Research in the Baker laboratory has been reviewed by the Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest Review Board and is being conducted in compliance with Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest policies. S.I.G. has no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:. A gut B-cell senescence/IgA axis drives dysbiosis.
In young mice, germinal center B-cells respond to antigens from normal gut flora, giving rise to activated B-cells that produce diverse IgA clones (left panel). With continuous antigen stimulation throughout aging, B-cells express p16Ink4a, thereby producing less total and varied IgA and altering gut microbiome composition (middle panel). Kawamoto, Uemura, et al. showed that aged germ-free mick lack p16-expressing cells (black text). They demonstrated that reconstitution in T- and B-cell deficient mice with young or aged p16/p21 DKO B-cells partially rescued age-related defects (black text). Whether senescent cell clearance, microbial transplantation, or interventions to restore IgA would alter the B-cell senescence/IgA/microbiota axis is unknown (red text). In humans, “unhealthy” aging is associated with distinct species-level differences in microbiome (likely context and population-dependent; right panel). Determining whether the age-related changes in B-cell properties observed by Kawamoto, Uemura, et al. occur in humans would be an important subject for future studies. Black font: observations established by Kawamoto et al. and other studies. Red font: open questions and future directions. Created with BioRender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

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