"We tracked behavior of rewilded laboratory mice of three inbred strains in outdoor enclosures and examined contributions of behavior, including social associations, to immune phenotypes. We found that the more associated two individuals were, the more similar their immune phenotypes were. Social association was particularly predictive of similar memory T and B cell profiles and was more influential than sibling relationships or worm infection status."
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.15.532825v1?med=mas
@Rahimilab To me, it makes sense at the repertoire level, at least from the perspective that if you are part of the same social group, you are likely to have some overlap in the universe of antigens, commensals and pathogens you encounter (and transmit within group).
I completely agree with the shared antigen explanation, but I found it surprising that the immune profile similarities in social networks didn’t seem driven by common mouse pathogens or similar microbiota. I agree that similar antigen exposure is still the likely explanation but they are also suggesting that some other aspect of socialization is driving the immune similarities. Intriguing.
@Rahimilab I suspect some of this may just be a bias of the time of data collection, as the general state of the T and B compartments are going to reflect the experience of a lifetime. A really interesting aspect here is the sibling relationship angle - it would be interesting to try to integrate this with what we know about assortative mating patterns & MHC.
That makes sense. I suspect they will have to soften some of the language that the shared immune phenotypes are not driven by pathogens or commensals.
Still, it is a very cool experimental approach. These rewilding and dirty mice experiments are fascinating.
@Rahimilab Time to make some coffee, sit by the fire & reread the works of Wayne Potts & Edward Wakeland :)