Figure 5 from Gut Microbiome Profiling in Eμ-TCL1 Mice Reveals Intestinal Changes and a Dysbiotic Signature Specific to Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Dysbiotic microbiome is observed in the aggressive syngeneic model of CLL. A, Study schematic illustrating WT B6 mice were engrafted intravenously via the tail vein with 1e⁷ spleen-derived lymphocytes from a moribund Eμ-TCL1 mouse (CLL engraftment). Engrafted mice (n = 10) were monitored with serial blood and fecal pellet sample collections over the study course of 7 weeks. B, CLL disease burden was measured by the percentage of CD45⁺/CD19⁺/CD5⁺ cells in the peripheral blood via flow cytometric analysis starting 1 week after engraftment. Asterisks denote the significance between leukemic mice over time (***, P < 0.001). One-way ANOVA with Dunnett multiple comparisons was applied for testing. C, Alpha diversity measured by the Shannon index in leukemic mice over 7 weeks. Data are presented as box-and-whisker plots, with box edges representing the 25th and 75th percentiles, the center line showing the median value, and whiskers extending to minimum and maximum values. One-way ANOVA with Dunnett multiple comparisons was applied for testing. D, PCoA plot depicting Bray–Curis distance as a measure of beta diversity in leukemic mice over 7 weeks. E, Relative abundance bar plots of bacterial taxa present in the gut microbiome of diseased mice over 7 weeks following engraftment. Unassigned includes all remaining taxa present in the microbiome at decreased abundance. F, LEfSe analysis demonstrating enrichment of specific bacterial taxa at the phylum level in leukemic mice at the time of engraftment and 1 and 3 weeks after engraftment. Eng./engraft., engraftment. LDA, linear discriminant analysis.