Protective effects of vegan microbiota on liver steatosis are is conveyed by dietary fiber: implications for fecal microbiota transfer therapy

Fecal microbiota transfer may serve as a possible therapeutic tool for treatment of obesity, NAFLD and related disorders but there is no consensus regarding the optimal donor requirements. Veganism is associated with low risk of these pathologies and healthy vegans may represent the promising microbiota donors, but evidence is lacking. Using ex-germ free animals colonized with human vegan microbiota and fed standard or western-type diet with or without inulin supplementation, we studied the interaction of vegan microbiota and different diets and the corresponding implications for metabolic phenotype and microbiota/metabolome composition.At timepoint A, mice were randomly divided into four groups, each of them receiving specific diet for another 8 weeks: SD (n=8, standard diet), SD+I (n=8, standard diet + 10% inulin), WD (n=9, western diet), WD+I (n=7, western diet + 10% inulin). After 8 weeks (timepoint B), oral glucose tolerance test was performed, animals were killed by overdose of anesthesia and tissue samples were collected for further analyses. Feces were collected at timepoints A and B.

粪便菌群移植（fecal microbiota transfer）或可作为肥胖、非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）及相关病症的潜在治疗手段，但目前关于最优供体标准尚未达成共识。素食主义与这类疾病的低发病风险相关，健康素食者或可成为极具潜力的菌群供体，但相关研究证据仍较为匮乏。本研究采用定植有人类素食者菌群的无菌（ex-germ free）动物，分别饲喂标准饲料或西式饲料，并添加或不添加菊粉，以此探究素食菌群与不同膳食模式的相互作用，及其对代谢表型、菌群/代谢组组成的潜在影响。在时间点A，小鼠被随机分为四组，每组均接受特定饲料干预8周：标准饲料组（SD，standard diet，n=8）、标准饲料+10%菊粉组（SD+I，n=8）、西式饲料组（WD，western diet，n=9）、西式饲料+10%菊粉组（WD+I，n=7）。干预8周后（时间点B），对小鼠进行口服葡萄糖耐量试验，随后通过过量麻醉处死动物并采集组织样本以用于后续分析。分别在时间点A和时间点B采集粪便样本。