Mesenteric Adipose Tissue-Derived Klebsiella variicola Disrupts Intestinal Barrier and Promotes Colitis by Type VI Secretion System.

Mesenteric adipose tissue (MAT) in Crohn's disease (CD) is associated with transmural inflammation. Extended mesenteric excision can reduce surgical recurrence and improve long-term outcomes, indicating that MAT plays an important role in the pathogenesis of CD. Bacterial translocation has been reported to occur in the MAT of patients with CD (CD-MAT), but the mechanisms by which translocated bacteria lead to intestinal colitis remain unclear. Here it is shown that members of Enterobacteriaceae are highly enriched in CD-MAT compared with non-CD controls. Viable Klebsiella variicola in Enterobacteriaceae is isolated exclusively in CD-MAT and can induce a pro-inflammatory response in vitro and exacerbates colitis both in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mice model and IL-10-/- spontaneous colitis mice model. Mechanistically, active type VI secretion system (T6SS) is identified in the genome of K. variicola, which can impair the intestinal barrier by inhibiting the zonula occludens (ZO-1) expression. Dysfunction of T6SS by CRISPR interference system alleviates the inhibitory effect of K. variicola on ZO-1 expression and attenuated colitis in mice. Overall, these findings demonstrate that a novel colitis-promoting bacteria exist in the mesenteric adipose tissue of CD, opening a new therapeutic avenue for colitis management.

Low-noise Kerr frequency comb generation with low temperature deuterated silicon nitride waveguides.

We report very low-loss deuterated silicon nitride (SiNx:D) micro-ring resonators fabricated by back-end CMOS compatible low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) without annealing. Strong confinement micro-ring resonators with a quality factor of > 2 million are achieved, corresponding to a propagation loss in the 1460-1610 nm wavelength range of ∼ 0.17 dB/cm. We further report the generation of low-noise coherent Kerr microcomb states including different perfect soliton crystals (PSC) in PECVD SiNx:D micro-ring resonators. These results manifest the promising potential of the back-end CMOS compatible SiNx:D platform for linear and nonlinear photonic circuits that can be co-integrated with electronics.