Integrative analysis of the gut microbiome and metabolome in a rat model with stress induced irritable bowel syndrome

Yue Hu,Haiyong Ye,Bin Lu,Fang Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97083-z

Abstract

Stress is one of the major causes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is well-known for perturbing the microbiome and exacerbating IBS-associated symptoms. However, changes in the gut microbiome and metabolome in response to colorectal distention (CRD), combined with restraint stress (RS) administration, remains unclear. In this study, CRD and RS stress were used to construct an IBS rat model. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to characterize the microbiota in ileocecal contents. UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS assay was used to characterize the metabolome of gut microbiota. As a result, significant gut microbial dysbiosis was observed in stress-induced IBS rats, with the obvious enrichment of three and depletion of 11 bacterial taxa in IBS rats, when compared with those in the control group (q < 0.05). Meanwhile, distinct changes in the fecal metabolic phenotype of stress-induced IBS rats were also found, including five increased and 19 decreased metabolites. Furthermore, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis were the main metabolic pathways induced by IBS stress. Moreover, the altered gut microbiota had a strong correlation with the changes in metabolism of stress-induced IBS rats. Prevotella bacteria are correlated with the metabolism of 1-Naphthol and Arg.Thr. In conclusion, the gut microbiome, metabolome and their interaction were altered. This may be critical for the development of stress-induced IBS.

Highlights

Stress is one of the major causes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is well-known for perturbing the microbiome and exacerbating IBS-associated symptoms
The present study revealed the significant differences in gut microbial community abundance in the levels of phylum, class, order, family, genera and species between IBS and control rats
The metabolic profile was changed in stress-induced IBS rats

Summary

Introduction

Stress is one of the major causes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is well-known for perturbing the microbiome and exacerbating IBS-associated symptoms. The altered gut microbiota had a strong correlation with the changes in metabolism of stress-induced IBS rats. The gut microbiome, metabolome and their interaction were altered This may be critical for the development of stress-induced IBS. The stress-induced rat model has been well used for the basic study of IBS and IBS-related disease It is presently well-accepted that the gut microbiota is critical in physiological function, regulating host immunity and metabolism, which is affected by environmental factors inside and outside of the h ost[10,11]. The present study employed the IBS model, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS-based metabolomics approaches to explore the alterations and correlations of the gut microbiota and metabolic phenotype of the IBS rat model through stress treatment

Methods

Results

Conclusion