ArticleNature communications2023
Early life gut microbiota sustains liver-resident natural killer cells maturation via the butyrate-IL-18 axis.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Polysaccharides: Natural candidates for targeting immunometabolic regulation in hepatocellular carcinoma (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2026Review
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- Lacticaseibacillus paracasei 36 attenuates D-GalN/LPS-induced acute liver injury in mice via suppressing the TLR4/NF-κB/MAPK pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome activation through modulating the intestinal microbiota.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Targeting the gut‒kidney axis for lupus nephritis treatment: multimechanism regulatory strategies and evidence from Traditional Chinese medicine.Chinese medicine · 2026Review
- Review
- Intestinal obstruction impairs the antitumor function of hepatic natural killer cells against colorectal cancer.Journal of gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Human DNA levels in feces reflect gut inflammation and associate with presence of gut species in IBD patients across the age spectrum.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Mucosal-associated invariant T cells and the gut-kidney axis: a review.Clinical kidney journal · 2026Review
- Chronic stress drives liver cancer by impairing the hepatic kynurenine pathway and immune surveillance.Nature metabolism · 2026Article
- Microbiota-derived metabolites in hematopoietic regulation and disease: mechanisms, context, and therapeutic perspectives.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Short-chain fatty acids in the tumor microenvironment: from molecular mechanisms to cancer therapy.Theranostics · 2026Review
- The gut-bone marrow axis in acute leukemia: an evidence-graded review of microbiota-immune crosstalk and therapeutic implications.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota metabolite butyric acid alleviatedBurns & trauma · 2026Article
- The microbiome-EBV axis in carcinogenesis bridges commensal influence and viral oncogenesis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Guardians within: Cross-talk between the gut microbiome and host immune system.World journal of gastrointestinal pathophysiology · 2025Review
- Gut microbial metabolite butyrate suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma growth via CXCL11-dependent enhancement of natural killer cell infiltration.Gut microbes · 2025Article
- Microbial Modulation of the Gut-Liver Axis in Autoimmune Liver Diseases.Seminars in liver disease · 2025Review
- Roles of short-chain fatty acids in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.World journal of hepatology · 2025Review
- New insights into the effects of microbiome and its derived metabolites on targeted immunotherapy.Journal of the Egyptian National Cancer Institute · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Liver-resident natural killer cells, a unique lymphocyte subset in liver, develop locally and play multifaceted immunological roles. However, the mechanisms for the maintenance of liver-resident natural killer cell homeostasis remain unclear. Here we show that early-life antibiotic treatment blunt functional maturation of liver-resident natural killer cells even at adulthood, which is dependent on the durative microbiota dysbiosis. Mechanistically, early-life antibiotic treatment significantly decreases butyrate level in liver, and subsequently led to defective liver-resident natural killer cell maturation in a cell-extrinsic manner. Specifically, loss of butyrate impairs IL-18 production in Kupffer cells and hepatocytes through acting on the receptor GPR109A. Disrupted IL-18/IL-18R signaling in turn suppresses the mitochondrial activity and the functional maturation of liver-resident natural killer cells. Strikingly, dietary supplementation of experimentally or clinically used Clostridium butyricum restores the impaired liver-resident natural killer cell maturation and function induced by early-life antibiotic treatment. Our findings collectively unmask a regulatory network of gut-liver axis, highlighting the importance of the early-life microbiota in the development of tissue-resident immune cells.
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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.