Deciphering gut microbiota alternation in central precocious puberty mice after Qingxiangyin using 16S rRNA sequencing

Central precocious puberty (CPP) is a familiar disease in preadolescent children. Gut microbes exert a vital role in CPP development. Qingxiangyin (QXY), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been employed to treat CPP for long time, but its effect on gut microbiota in CPP remains unclear. In the present study, the 16S rRNA sequencing was utilized to investigate gut microbiota in CPP mice after QXY treatment. Results showed that QXY obviously increased gut microbiota diversity and richness of CPP mice. The abundance of Lactobacillus and Odoribacter was decreased, and Ruminococcus, Bacteroides, and Prevotella was increased in CPP mice, whereas QXY partly reversed this trend. Furthermore, KEGG analysis revealed that gut microbiota was chiefly engaged in Amino acid metabolism, Carbohydrate metabolism, and Lipid metabolism in CPP mice. In conclusion, QXY could adjust the structure and composition of gut microbiota in CPP mice. The results offered a novel insight that gut microbiota might represent potential targets for elucidating the mechanism by which QXY alleviates CPP.