Immune System Modulation of Pain via Diet

To determine how diet affects the gut microbiota, pain, and recovery from inflammatory injury, CD1 mice (ICR:Crl) were fed diets varying in fat source: 1) standard chow (REG; NIH-31, Harlan Teklad), 2) standard American Diet (SAD, Envigo TD.140536), 3) Anti-Inflammatory Diet (AID, Envigo TD.150364). A fourth diet group was included to determine the effect of alternating between the diets in which mice were fed the AID diet Monday to Friday and the SAD diet on Saturday and Sunday. This diet shift aimed to model a pattern of eating that included "cheat days" on the weekends with healthy eating during the week. All mice were fed standard chow for two weeks before introduction to the experimental diets. After 16 weeks of experimental diet exposure a fecal pellet was collected for sequencing of the microbial 16S rRNA gene.