The results of a study by researchers at Hokkaido University’s Faculty of Medicine have shown how composition of the gut microbiome is crucial to driving a process known as granulopoiesis that replenishes neutrophil counts in the blood of mice following treatments such as hematopoietic stem cell transplants (SCT) or chemotherapy. The mechanism was found to depend on T cell production of IL-17. The team suggests that future work could investigate the development of antibiotics that don’t affect those gut microbiota that promote granulopoiesis, or probiotics that might support granulopoiesis after SCT or chemotherapy.
