Characteristic intestinal microflora of specific pathogen-free mice bred in two different colonies and their influence on postnatal murine immunocyte profiles.

Cecal microflora of BALB/c mice originating from two different SPF-breeding colonies were compared. The analysis of cultivable bacteria in the ceca showed significantly higher numbers of total bacteria in BALB/cCrSlc (SLC mice) than in BALB/cA Jcl (JCL mice) (p<0.05), which were mainly based on higher numbers and occurrence of Peptococaceae. Bifidobacteria were detected only in SLC mice. Feeding an oligosaccharide, raffinose, to the mice also induced different shifts in the composition of cecal microflora and the concentration of cecal organic acids. In the second experiment, hysterectomy-derived (HD) SLC mice were fostered to SPF lactating SLC mothers, or SPF lactating JCL mice, together with the mother's own natural birth (NB) pups in each isolator. HD mice fostered to SLC-mothers showed significantly higher percentages of T-cell receptor alphabeta cells expressing a CD8alpha homodimer (p<0.05) and a CD8alphabeta heterodimer (p<0.001) in the intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) compared with HD mice fostered to JCL-mothers. IEL profiles of HD mice corresponded well to those of NB mice that were breast-fed by the same mothers. Differences in the ratio of B220(+)cells to Thy1.2(+)cells in the splenocytes were also observed as a trend between both HD mice fostered to SLC or JCL mothers (p=0.06). These results suggest that postnatal colonization of various characteristic intestinal microflora derived from SPF-breeding colonies results in differences in development of lymphocyte populations in the intestinal and systemic organs of mice.