Effects of moderate, voluntary ethanol consumption on the rat and human gut microbiome

Many alcohol-induced health complications are directly attributable the toxicity of alcohol or its metabolites, but another potential health impact of alcohol may be on the microbial communities of the human gut. Clear distinctions between healthy and diseased-state gut microbiota have been observed in subjects with metabolic diseases and recent studies suggest that severe alcoholism is linked to gut microbiome dysbiosis. In this study, we observed the effects of moderate, voluntary alcohol consumption in the Wistar rat over a 12-week series by identifying differing taxa and diversity between control-fed and ethanol-fed rats. We also compared our results to human fecal microbiome data collected as part of the citizen science American Gut Project.