Multi-omics Analysis of Gut Microbiota and Metabolites in Rats With Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Si Liu,Chaozeng Si,Hengcun Li,Guiping Zhao,Shengtao Zhu,Li Min,Yang Yu,Yang Chen,Shutian Zhang,Zheng Zhang,Yu Zhao,Lei Chen

doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00178

Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal dysfunctional disease. The pathophysiology of IBS is, however, largely unknown. This study aimed to determine whether evaluation of fecal metabolite and microbiota profiles may offer an opportunity to identify a novel pathophysiological target for IBS, and to reveal possible gut microbe–metabolite associations. By using gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we measured fecal metabolites and microbiota of the control and water avoidance stress (WAS)-induced IBS rats. We found a significantly differential metabolite profile between the IBS and control groups; a cluster of metabolites was also found to be significantly associated with the amount of defecations. Moreover, the WAS group exhibited a decreased alpha diversity of the microbial population as compared to the control group. However, the characteristics of gut microbiota could not differentiate the IBS group from the control group. Correlation of the metabolite level with the number of microbial genera showed no significant association between the control and IBS groups. This study provides a global perspective on metabolomics and microbiota profiling in WAS-induced IBS model and a theoretical basis for research on the pathophysiology of IBS.

Highlights

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal dysfunctional disease with a prevalence of 8–20% in many countries, and the number of IBS cases is 1.5- to 2-fold more in women than in men(Lovell and Ford, 2012a,b)
orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) revealed that the gut metabolites in the control group were significantly different from those in the IBS group
The present study was carried out to obtain quantitative metabolite and microbe signatures of fecal samples from water avoidance stress (WAS)-induced IBS rats and control rats; this investigation aimed to evaluate possible microbe–metabolite associations in the intestinal microenvironment. This is the first report that analyzed the networks of gut microbe–metabolite associations in WAS-induced IBS rats

Summary

Introduction

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal dysfunctional disease with a prevalence of 8–20% in many countries, and the number of IBS cases is 1.5- to 2-fold more in women than in men(Lovell and Ford, 2012a,b). IBS is characterized by multiple symptoms, including chronic and recurrent abdominal pain/discomfort and altered bowel habits (Mayer, 2008; Ford et al, 2017). Patients with IBS appear to have a high level of psychosocial stress and a lower quality of life and work productivity (Cashman et al, 2016). The underlying causes of IBS are largely unknown and are thought to be heterogeneous. Research on IBS has traditionally focused on genetic predisposition, altered gastrointestinal

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