Effects of long-chain inulin on the reconstruction of gut microbiota in mice after antibiotics treatment

Abstract:

[Objective] To investigate the effects of long-chain inulin supplementation on the gut microbiota recovery after antibiotics treatment induced dysbiosis. [Methods] Fifty healthy 10-week-old BALB/c mice were randomly divided into 2 groups, 15 mice were used as controls (the Ctrl group), and the remaining 35 mice were provided water containing 4 antibiotics (the ABx group) ad libitum for 7 days. On the 8th day, the antibiotic-induced dysbiosis mice were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group was provided drinking water containing 5% inulin as the inulin recovery group (the Ire group), and the other group received normal drinking water as the spontaneous recovery group (the Sre group). The treatment continued for 21 continuous days. On the 7th day after ABx treatment and on the 7th, 14th and 21th day of the recovery treatment, the colon samples were collected and subjected to histological analysis; the feacal samples were collected and subjected to 16S rRNA V3-V4 region sequencing and analyzed with bioinformatic softwares. [Results] The antibiotics treatment induced slight colonic inflammation but serious gut microbiota dysbiosis. Histological analysis showed that the colonic inflammation gradually decreased after 21 days of either long chain inulin supplementation or spontaneous recovery. However long-chain inulin intervention delayed the recovery of colon tissue compared to spontaneous recovery. Neither inulin supplementation nor spontaneous recovery could restore gut microbiota composition at the genus level. In particular, long-chain inulin supplementation might result in selective expansion of some opportunistic pathogens and elevated the pathways associated with diseases linked to gut microbiota function. [Conclusion] Long-chain inulin supplementation, after antibiotic-induced severe gut microbiota dysbiosis, delayed the reconstruction of the gut microbiota and might led to potential adverse effects.

Key words:long-chain inulin;antibiotics;gut microbiota;microbiota reconstitution