PR000989 (Project)

Description:Intestinal microbiota produces D-amino acids, which are bacteria-specific metabolites, for their growth and their communication. Host intestine release D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) to degrade bacterial D-amino acids that results in regulation of microbiota. However, it is not clarified whether bacterial D-amino acids affect host’s immunity. In the present study, we investigated the metabolites in intestinal contents of DAO null mice compared to wild type animals. We did not find any significant difference in metabolites when we did not distinguish chirality. However, we found that DAO null mice had much higher amount of D-alanine in the intestinal epithelium, suggesting that D-alanine are involved in activated immune response in DAO null mice.