The determinants of measures of immune function in a wild mammal.

野生哺乳动物免疫功能测量的决定因素。

• 批准号: NE/I022892/1
• 负责人: Mark Viney
• 金额: $ 70.83万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FI022892%2F1
• 关键词: determinants; measures; immune; function; wild

Animals make immune responses to protect themselves from infections. All animals have infections during their life: being infected is a normal part of life. Animals can be infected internally with viruses, bacteria, protozoa (single-celled animals) and worms and externally with ticks and mites.Being infected causes harm to an animal because the infections damage and destroy cells and tissue. The immune responses that animals make to get rid of infections require a lot of energy. Therefore, overall, being infected is costly to an animal.Wild animals have many other challenges in their lives, apart from infections. For example, they have to search for food, which might often not be very abundant. Further, individuals compete with each other for limited amounts of food. Animals also reproduce which is, again, costly in time and energy. Putting this all together means that wild animals live stressful lives. One important aspect of this stress is that animals may not have enough food and energy to make ideal immune responses or to fully invest in reproduction etc. Therefore, wild animals have to make difficult 'decisions' about how to use their limited resources to keep themselves alive and to pass on their genes.Because of this, within a group of animals, individuals will vary in how good their immune responses are: some will make very strong responses, others very weak responses. We investigated this in a pilot project where we measured the immune responses of wild mice and, indeed, we found that different individuals vary a lot in the immune responses that they make. By comparing the immune responses of wild and laboratory mice we also found that the immune responses of wild mice are quite different to those of their laboratory cousins.We now want to understand what aspects of a wild mouse's life determines whether it makes a very strong immune response or a very weak immune response. Laboratory studies of animals have identified lots of things that can affect immune response: we want to find out which of these matter, and how much, in wild mice. Some factors that affect immune function are sex (and sex hormones), genetics, season, age and body condition. For example the male hormone testosterone often suppresses immune responses; animals fed low-protein or low-calorie diets often make weaker or slower immune responses. In our pilot project work we studied wild mice, Mus musculus. We particularly chose this species because this is also the laboratory mouse. There is a very detailed understanding of the immunology of laboratory mice and very many tools and reagents are available to measure their immune responses. This means that we could make very good measures of immune responses of wild mice, far better than we could for almost any other wild animal.In the work that we are proposing we will undertake a large survey of wild mice in which we will measure their immune function together with many other aspects of their biology including sex, genetics, size, weight, percent body fat, leptin (the 'fat' hormone) concentration, sex hormone concentrations etc. We will then look for associations between these different factors and immune responses, which will therefore tell us what determines the immune responses of mice in the wild. This will be the first study that will undertake a comprehensive study of immune function in wild mammals. The results will therefore, for the first time, allow us to understand the main controls of the immune responses of wild animals. This work will be relevant to understanding the immune function of other wild mammals and animals. This is important, not least, because immune function and its variation between individuals is important in affecting epidemics of infection and disease in wild populations.

动物会做出免疫反应来保护自己免受感染。所有动物在其一生中都会受到感染：被感染是生活的正常组成部分。动物体内可能感染病毒、细菌、原生动物（单细胞动物）和蠕虫，体外可能感染蜱虫和螨虫。感染会对动物造成伤害，因为感染会损害和破坏细胞和组织。动物为摆脱感染而做出的免疫反应需要大量能量。因此，总的来说，被感染对动物来说代价高昂。除了感染之外，野生动物在生活中还面临许多其他挑战。例如，他们必须寻找食物，而食物往往不是很丰富。此外，个体之间还会争夺有限的食物。动物也会繁殖，这又要耗费时间和精力。综上所述，野生动物的生活压力很大。这种压力的一个重要方面是，动物可能没有足够的食物和能量来做出理想的免疫反应或充分投入繁殖等。因此，野生动物必须做出艰难的“决定”，如何利用其有限的资源来维持自己的生存并传递其基因。因此，在一群动物中，个体的免疫反应程度会有所不同：有些会做出非常强的反应，有些会做出非常弱的反应。我们在一个试点项目中对此进行了研究，在该项目中，我们测量了野生小鼠的免疫反应，事实上，我们发现不同个体的免疫反应存在很大差异。通过比较野生小鼠和实验室小鼠的免疫反应，我们还发现野生小鼠的免疫反应与其实验室表亲的免疫反应有很大不同。我们现在想了解野生小鼠生命的哪些方面决定了它是产生非常强的免疫反应还是非常弱的免疫反应。对动物的实验室研究已经发现了许多可以影响免疫反应的因素：我们想找出其中哪些因素对野生小鼠有影响，以及有多少影响。影响免疫功能的一些因素包括性别（和性激素）、遗传、季节、年龄和身体状况。例如，雄性激素睾酮经常抑制免疫反应；喂食低蛋白或低热量饮食的动物通常会产生较弱或较慢的免疫反应。在我们的试点项目工作中，我们研究了野生小鼠（Mus musculus）。我们特别选择这个物种，因为它也是实验室小鼠。人们对实验室小鼠的免疫学有了非常详细的了解，并且有很多工具和试剂可用于测量其免疫反应。这意味着我们可以对野生小鼠的免疫反应进行非常好的测量，远远好于几乎任何其他野生动物。在我们提议的工作中，我们将对野生小鼠进行大规模调查，其中我们将测量它们的免疫功能以及它们生物学的许多其他方面，包括性别、遗传、体型、体重、体脂百分比、瘦素（“脂肪”激素）浓度、性激素浓度等。然后我们将寻找这些不同的之间的关联。 因此，这将告诉我们是什么决定了野生小鼠的免疫反应。这将是第一项对野生哺乳动物免疫功能进行全面研究的研究。因此，这些结果将首次让我们了解野生动物免疫反应的主要控制因素。这项工作将有助于了解其他野生哺乳动物和动物的免疫功能。这一点很重要，因为免疫功能及其个体之间的差异对于影响野生种群中感染和疾病的流行非常重要。

项目成果

The comparative immunology of wild and laboratory mice, Mus musculus domesticus.

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14811
• 发表时间: 2017-05-03
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Abolins S;King EC;Lazarou L;Weldon L;Hughes L;Drescher P;Raynes JG;Hafalla JCR;Viney ME;Riley EM
• 通讯作者: Riley EM

The laboratory mouse and wild immunology

实验室小鼠和野生免疫学

• DOI: 10.1111/pim.12150
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Parasite Immunology
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Viney M

The gut microbiota of wild rodents: Challenges and opportunities.

野生啮齿动物的肠道微生物群：挑战和机遇。

• DOI: 10.1177/0023677218787538
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Laboratory animals
• 影响因子: 2.4
• 作者: Viney M

The genetics of immune and infection phenotypes in wild mice, Mus musculus domesticus

野生小鼠家鼠免疫和感染表型的遗传学

• DOI: 10.1101/2022.07.26.501599
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Cheynel L

The Immunology of Wild Rodents: Current Status and Future Prospects.

• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01481
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: Frontiers in immunology
• 影响因子: 7.3
• 作者: Viney M;Riley EM
• 通讯作者: Riley EM