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.

动物做出免疫反应以保护自己免受感染。所有动物一生都有感染：被感染是生活的正常部分。动物可以在内部被病毒，细菌，原生动物（单细胞动物）和蠕虫感染，并用tick虫和螨虫外部感染。感染受感染会对动物造成伤害，因为感染会损害并破坏细胞和组织。动物摆脱感染的免疫反应需要大量能量。因此，总体而言，被感染对动物来说是昂贵的。野生动物在生活中还有许多其他挑战，除了感染。例如，他们必须寻找食物，这通常不是很丰富。此外，个人相互竞争有限的食物。动物也繁殖，这在时间和能量上又是昂贵的。将所有这些放在一起意味着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完全投资于繁殖等。因此，野生动物必须对如何利用有限的资源保持生命并传递其基因做出困难的“决策”。因为在一组动物中，个人会在某些良好的免疫反应中差异，而这些反应会产生非常强烈的反应，而其他人则将非常弱。我们在一个试点项目中对此进行了调查，在该项目中，我们测量了野生小鼠的免疫反应，实际上，我们发现不同的个体在其产生的免疫反应中有很大差异。通过比较野生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完全不同。我们现在想了解野生小鼠生命的哪些方面决定了它是非常强大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确定了许多可能影响免疫反应的事物：我们想找出其中哪一个，以及野生小鼠的多少。影响免疫功能的某些因素是性别（和性激素），遗传学，季节，年龄和身体状况。例如，雄性激素睾丸激素通常会抑制免疫反应。喂养低蛋白或低热量饮食的动物通常会使免疫反应较弱或较慢。在我们的试点项目工作中，我们研究了野生小鼠Mus Musculus。我们特别选择该物种，因为这也是实验室小鼠。对实验室小鼠的免疫学有非常详细的了解，许多工具和试剂可用于衡量其免疫反应。这意味着我们可以很好地衡量野生小鼠的免疫反应，远胜于几乎任何其他野生动物的能力。因素和免疫反应，因此将告诉我们是什么决定了野生小鼠的免疫反应。这将是第一项将对野生哺乳动物中免疫功能进行全面研究的研究。因此，结果将首次允许我们了解野生动物免疫反应的主要控制。这项工作将与了解其他野生哺乳动物和动物的免疫功能有关。这一点很重要，尤其是，因为免疫功能及其个体之间的变异对于影响野生种群的感染和疾病流行很重要。

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 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 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 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