A naturalized gut microbiome interacts with dietary fibers to protect against colonic inflammation - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #Colitis
- #Dietary Fiber
- #Gut Microbiome
- Feralized mice, housed in farmyard-type environments, have an altered gut microbiome and immune phenotype compared to conventional lab mice.
- Feralized mice were protected from DSS-induced colitis, with protection strongest when fed a high-fiber diet, whereas the same diet worsened colitis in clean lab mice.
- The protective effect was transferable via fecal microbiota transplantation from feralized to clean mice.
- A high-fiber diet enriched the microbiome with genes for fiber-degrading enzymes, while a low-fiber diet promoted mucin-degrading enzyme genes.
- The specific bacterial species carrying these functional genes differed between feralized and lab mice.
- The findings highlight that dietary fiber's impact on intestinal inflammation is dependent on the host's gut microbiota composition.