Fig. 5: TCA has a tumour-promoting effect, and B. breve inhibits tumour growth by deconjugating TCA. | npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Fig. 5: TCA has a tumour-promoting effect, and B. breve inhibits tumour growth by deconjugating TCA.

From: Deconjugating taurocholic acid with Bifidobacterium to mitigate obesity-driven cancer progression by restoring CD8+ T-cell infiltration

Fig. 5

A–E Serum from CD-fed, HFD-fed, or HFD + B. breve-treated mice was analysed by LC‒MS/MS to determine the metabolite composition. A PCA plot of the serum metabolomic analysis. B Venn diagram showing the shared and distinct metabolites among the three groups. C Heatmap with the normalization of the relative abundance of differentially abundant serum metabolites based on pairwise comparisons. D Absolute quantification of TCA and TDCA levels in the serum of the mice from the three groups. E Correlation analysis between Bifidobacterium and TCA levels in DIO mice. F B. breve decomposed TCA under in vitro culture conditions (n = 4/group). G–M TCA exacerbates tumour development and restricts CD8+ T-cell infiltration. G Schematic of the experimental timeline in PBS-treated and TCA-treated mice (PBS: n = 5 mice/group, TCA: n = 6 mice/group). H Macroscopic representation, tumour growth curve and mass of Hepa1-6 tumours. I NK cells, T cells, Tc cells, and Th cells among total single live cells in Hepa1-6 tumours. J Proportions of Tc cells and Th cells among the total population of T cells. K DCs, TAMs and their subsets, and MDSCs among the total single live cells in Hepa1-6 tumours. L Proportions of M1 TAMs and M2 TAMs among the total population of TAMs. M Representative images of H&E staining and immunohistochemical staining of the tumour sections. The main tumour-infiltrating immune cells were recognized by detecting the expression of corresponding surface markers (left panel; scale bar = 50 μm). The quantitative analysis was performed with ImageJ, and the number of positive cells is presented in column plots (right panel). The data are presented as the means ± SEMs. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, and ns not significant. TCA taurocholic acid, CD control diet, HFD high-fat diet, B. breve Bifidobacterium breve, LC‒MS/MS liquid chromatography‒mass spectrometry, TDCA taurodeoxycholic acid, NK natural killer, Tc cytotoxic CD8+ T cell, Th helper CD4+ T cell, DCs dendritic cells, TAMs tumour-associated macrophages, MDSCs myeloid-derived suppressor cells.

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