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.