{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,19]],"date-time":"2026-05-19T18:08:11Z","timestamp":1779214091637,"version":"3.51.4"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,16]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":55,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,16]],"date-time":"2026-05-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778889600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/about\/FAQ#license"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000050","name":"National Heart Lung and Blood Institute","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["R01 HL157533, NIH K24 HL127301-01 to Wonder P. Drake"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01 HL157533, NIH K24 HL127301-01 to Wonder P. 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Vagus neuroanatomy and reports of vagal protein transfer to extraintestinal organs suggest that this \u201csuperhighway\u201d could translocate bacteria. Here we explore whether the vagus superhighway can translocate bacteria to extraintestinal organs. Gavage of green fluorescent protein\u2013expressing\n                  <jats:italic>Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  (GFP-\n                  <jats:italic>E. coli)<\/jats:italic>\n                  into germ-free (GF) or specific-pathogen free (SPF) C57BL\/6 mice yielded high bacillary loads in the stomach and lungs, followed by the heart, stool and peripheral muscles, despite negative blood cultures. Notably, confocal microscopy and culture revealed GFP-\n                  <jats:italic>E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  within the vagus nerve within five minutes of gavage suggesting rapid translocation. Metagenomic analysis of stool, lung, heart, vagus nerve, and muscle from non-gavaged SPF mice demonstrated significant microbial overlap, supporting that bacterial translocation occurs despite the presence of endogenous microflora. Remarkably, subdiaphragmatic vagotomy performed prior to GFP-\n                  <jats:italic>E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n                  gavage resulted in marked reductions of bacterial transduction in the lungs and other extraintestinal organs, except muscle. Furthermore, vagotomy significantly reduced lung fibrosis in SPF mice following intranasal bleomycin administration. In lung cancer patients undergoing lobectomy, vagotomy inhibited postsurgical reductions in forced vital capacity. These findings identify the vagus nerve as a literal gut\u2013lung axis, facilitating viable bacterial translocation and influencing lung severity.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.05.15.725489","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,16]],"date-time":"2026-05-16T10:55:13Z","timestamp":1778928913000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Vagus Nerve conducts viable translocation of gut flora to the lungs that impacts interstitial lung disease severity in mice"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Amit","family":"Kumar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pooja","family":"Keerthipati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Humphrey","family":"Lotana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tristan","family":"White","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Evan","family":"Jones","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joseph","family":"Prescrille","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tonya","family":"Webb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuyi","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andriy","family":"Somakhin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Da\u2019Kuawn","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Orest","family":"Tsymbalyuk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurosurgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marc","family":"Simard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurosurgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xichun","family":"Qin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221006, Jiangsu Province, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yong","family":"Ge","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221006, Jiangsu Province, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221006, Jiangsu Province, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shilpa","family":"Dilipkumar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2481-698X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Norberto","family":"Gonzalez-Juarbe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA"},{"name":"Infectious Diseases and Genomic Medicine Group, J. 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