Abstract
BackgroundSpinal cord injury (SCI) patients display disruption of gut microbiome, and gut dysbiosis exacerbate neurological impairment in SCI models. Cumulative data support an important role of gut microbiome in SCI. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from healthy uninjured mice into SCI mice may exert a neuroprotective effect.ResultsFMT facilitated functional recovery, promoted neuronal axonal regeneration, improved animal weight gain and metabolic profiling, and enhanced intestinal barrier integrity and GI motility in SCI mice. High-throughput sequencing revealed that levels of phylum Firmicutes, family Christensenellaceae, and genus Butyricimonas were reduced in fecal samples of SCI mice, and FMT remarkably reshaped gut microbiome. Also, FMT-treated SCI mice showed increased amount of fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which correlated with alteration of intestinal permeability and locomotor recovery. Furthermore, FMT downregulated IL-1β/NF-κB signaling in spinal cord and NF-κB signaling in gut following SCI.ConclusionOur study demonstrates that reprogramming of gut microbiota by FMT improves locomotor and GI functions in SCI mice, possibly through the anti-inflammatory functions of SCFAs.4wtf5ApZ8ToEwi5YEe-D32Video
Highlights
Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients display disruption of gut microbiome, and gut dysbiosis exacerbate neurological impairment in SCI models
fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) treatment improves locomotor recovery in spinal cord injury mice To investigate the effects of gut microbiota on SCI, we conducted FMT from healthy uninjured mice to mice that had been subjected to spinal cord injury (Fig. 1a)
FMT treatment further significantly increased hindlimb locomotor function starting from 14 days after injury compared to that of SCI group, and the improvement in Basso Mouse Scale (BMS) scores and BMS subscores continued until the end of the experiment (Fig. 1b, c)
Summary
Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients display disruption of gut microbiome, and gut dysbiosis exacerbate neurological impairment in SCI models. Recent investigations demonstrated that induced gut dysbiosis exacerbates lesion pathology and impairs functional recovery after SCI, whereas remodeling gut microbes is beneficial to locomotor recovery following injury [22, 24]. These studies have emphasized a strong correlation between gut dysbiosis and SCI and further implied the significance of gut microbiome in neurological regulation
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