ArticleNature2016
Normalizing the environment recapitulates adult human immune traits in laboratory mice.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 678 papers.
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Who cites it
678 citing papers in PubMed.
- Natural microbiota confer life-long protection against obesity via an early-life, immune-mediated effect on brown adipocytes.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- A naturalized gut microbiome interacts with dietary fibers to protect against colonic inflammation.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Soil-derived microbiota induces T regulatory cells and protect against mouse colitis, metabolic disease, and sepsis.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Macrophage heterogeneity in human secondary lymphoid organs.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2026Review
- A gavage-fomite based method to generate mouse models with natural microbiota.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2026Article
- A host-adapted commensal fungus from pet store mice drives type 2 immunity and cross-kingdom protection.iScience · 2026Article
- Dirty mice better recapitulate key features of mRNA vaccine immunogenicity observed in humans.mBio · 2026Article
- Peri-weaning, diet-induced activation of an IFNγ-mediated regulatory circuit promotes cDC1 maturation and CD8Nature communications · 2026Article
- B1 Cells for Life.Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- Human lungs maintain tissue-resident memory T cells against a broad spectrum of pathogens.Nature immunology · 2026Article
- Localization of TCR-expressing natural intraepithelial lymphocytes in the colon epithelium depends on GPR15 and epithelium-derived C10ORF99.Mucosal immunology · 2026Article
- A Bacterial Microbiome Is Dispensable for the Induction of CD8 T Cell Exhaustion.European journal of immunology · 2026Article
- In vivo mitochondrial oxygen consumption during LPS-induced endotoxemia: a controlled experimental study in swine.Intensive care medicine experimental · 2026Article
- Hematological consequences of environmental change during dewilding of rhesus macaques.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Environmental drivers of low vaccine responsiveness in a lab-to-wild rodent model.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- A need for pragmatism in preclinical aging and longevity research.Nature aging · 2026Article
- T-Cell Memory Affects Lung Responses to Cecal Ligation and Puncture.Shock (Augusta, Ga.) · 2026Article
- Microbiota and immune-related adverse events in cancer immunotherapy.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2026Review
- Sequential infection reprograms the immune landscape to shape future responses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Correlates of protection against African swine fever virus identified by a systems immunology approach.eLife · 2026Article
618 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Our current understanding of immunology was largely defined in laboratory mice, partly because they are inbred and genetically homogeneous, can be genetically manipulated, allow kinetic tissue analyses to be carried out from the onset of disease, and permit the use of tractable disease models. Comparably reductionist experiments are neither technically nor ethically possible in humans. However, there is growing concern that laboratory mice do not reflect relevant aspects of the human immune system, which may account for failures to translate disease treatments from bench to bedside. Laboratory mice live in abnormally hygienic specific pathogen free (SPF) barrier facilities. Here we show that standard laboratory mouse husbandry has profound effects on the immune system and that environmental changes produce mice with immune systems closer to those of adult humans. Laboratory mice--like newborn, but not adult, humans--lack effector-differentiated and mucosally distributed memory T cells. These cell populations were present in free-living barn populations of feral mice and pet store mice with diverse microbial experience, and were induced in laboratory mice after co-housing with pet store mice, suggesting that the environment is involved in the induction of these cells. Altering the living conditions of mice profoundly affected the cellular composition of the innate and adaptive immune systems, resulted in global changes in blood cell gene expression to patterns that more closely reflected the immune signatures of adult humans rather than neonates, altered resistance to infection, and influenced T-cell differentiation in response to a de novo viral infection. These data highlight the effects of environment on the basal immune state and response to infection and suggest that restoring physiological microbial exposure in laboratory mice could provide a relevant tool for modelling immunological events in free-living organisms, including humans.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.