Stimulation of Pro-inflammatory Cytokines in Mixed Cultures of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Anaerobic Bacteria

Anthony R Torres; Shayne Morris; Michael Benson; Craig Wilkinson; Rachael Lyon

doi:10.7759/cureus.50586

Stimulation of Pro-inflammatory Cytokines in Mixed Cultures of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Anaerobic Bacteria

Cureus. 2023 Dec 15;15(12):e50586. doi: 10.7759/cureus.50586. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Anthony R Torres¹, Shayne Morris¹, Michael Benson¹, Craig Wilkinson², Rachael Lyon³

Affiliations

¹ Microbiology, Nutri-Biome, Ogden, USA.
² Statistics, Nutri-Biome, Ogden, USA.
³ Consultancy, Nutri-Biome, Ogden, USA.

Abstract

In the last couple of decades, much progress has been made in studying bacteria living in humans. However, there is much more to learn about bacteria immune cell interactions. Here, we show that anaerobic bacteria do not grow when cultured overnight with human cells under atmospheric air. Air contains about 18% oxygen, which inhibits the growth of these bacteria while supporting the cultivation of human cells. The bacteria cultured with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) inflamed with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) greatly increased the production of proinflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) while inhibiting the production of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), an important chemokine.

Keywords: anaerobic bacteria; chemiluminescence immunoassay; human microbiome; inflammation; peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc); proinflammatory cytokines.