Abstract
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is an environmental contaminant that has been manufactured to be used as surfactants and repellents in industry. Due to long half-life for clearance and degradation, PFOS is accumulative in human body and has potential threat to human health. Previous studies have shown the development and function of immune cells can be affected by PFOS. Although PFOS has a high chance of being absorbed through the oral route, whether and how PFOS affects immune cells in the gut is unknown. Using mouse model of Citrobacter rodentium infection, we investigated the role of PFOS on intestinal immunity. We found at early phase of the infection, PFOS inhibited the expansion of the pathogen by promoting IL-22 production from the group 3 innate lymphoid cell (ILC3) in an aryl hydrocarbon receptor dependent manner. Nevertheless, persistent PFOS treatment in mice finally led to a failure to clear the pathogen completely. At late phase of infection, enhanced bacterial counts in PFOS treated mice were accompanied by increased inflammatory cytokines, reduced mucin production and dysbiosis, featured by decreased level of Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus johnsonii and increased E. coli. Our study reveals a deleterious consequence in intestinal bacterial infection caused by PFOS accumulation.
Highlights
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is widely used as surface treatment chemical, polymerization acid and surfactant in industry, due to its chemical stability, high surface activity and water and oil repellence property
Under the steady state without C. rodentium, the difference in the change of body weight was not observed in PFOS treated mice compared to control, implying the pathogenic role of PFOS mainly exists in intestinal infection (Figure S1)
We determined the effect of PFOS on intestinal immunity and intestinal infection using a mouse model of Citrobacter rodentium infection, which recapitulates human enteropathogenic E. coli and enterohemorrhagic E. coli infection[17,18,19]
Summary
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is widely used as surface treatment chemical, polymerization acid and surfactant in industry, due to its chemical stability, high surface activity and water and oil repellence property. Being a paper-packaging material and a contaminant in the water, PFOS can frequently be absorbed through the oral route and accumulate in the intestine, modulate intestinal immunity under physiological and pathological conditions. It is not known whether and how PFOS affects the intestinal immune cells, especially during pathological conditions such as intestinal bacterial infections. PFOS exposure caused persistent inflammation in the intestine accompanied by decreased mucin production from goblet cells and dysbiosis, which led to a failure to clear C. rodentium at late phase of infection. Our finding reveals that PFOS exposure leads to a detrimental consequence in intestinal bacterial infection
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