Prenatal food additive intake by mothers with inflammatory bowel disease impacts offspring microbiota and susceptibility to gut inflammation

To investigate the transgenerational impacts of parental food additive intake on intestinal outcomes of offspring mice, germ free male and female mice were transplanted with microbiota from human donors with high or low food additive intake one week before mating. Faecal samples from parental mice before mating, on gestational day 14, and at weaning, as well as samples from offspring mice at weaning, were collected to conduct metagenomics sequencing to validate the fidelity of microbiota transplantation and vertical transmission, as well as the transgenerational impact of parental food additive intake on the microbiome of offspring mice.