Functional characterization of inflammatory bowel disease-associated gut dysbiosis in gnotobiotic mice. Mus musculus

Gut dysbiosis is closely involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, it remains unclear whether IBD-associated gut dysbiosis plays a primary role in disease manifestation or is merely secondary to intestinal inflammation. Here, we established a humanized gnotobiotic (hGB) mouse system to assess the functional role of gut dysbiosis associated with two types of IBD - Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). In order to explore the functional impact of dysbiotic microbiota in IBD patients on host immune responses, we analyzed gene expression profiles in colonic mucosa of hGB mice colonized with healty (HC), CD, and UC microbiota. Overall design: WT-GF and GB mice (HC, CD, UC) were sacrificed after 2 weeks from human microbiota reconstitution and collected colon tissue for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. WT-GF: n=2, HC-Mb GB mice: n=4, CD-Mb GB mice: n=5, UC-Mb GB mice: n=5.