Salmonella infection accelerates potential maturation of the intestinal epithelium

Postnatal establishment of enteric metabolic, host-microbial and immune homeostasis is the result of precisely timed and tightly regulated developmental and adaptive processes. Here, we show that infection with the invasive enteropathogen Salmonella Typhimurium results in a Myd88-dependent accelerated maturation of the neonatal epithelium with premature appearance of antimicrobial, metabolic, developmental, and regenerative features of the adult tissue. Overall design: To study intestinal epithelial maturation during homeostatic conditions, we isolated intestinal epithelial cells from small intestinal tissue obtained from C57Bl/6J wild type specific pathogen free (SPF) newborn (5-day-old) and adult (8-week-old) mice, C57Bl/6J Myd88-/- newborn (5-day-old) mice and C57Bl/6N wild tyoe germ free (GF) and SPF newborn (5-day-old) mice. In addition, we isolated intestinal epithelial cells from newborn (5-day-old) and adult (8-week-old) mice that had been infected 4 days earlier with Salmonella Typhimurium. We then isolated RNA and performed 3'mRNA-Seq. Four biological replicates were used per group.