J Cancer Prev.  2019 Sep;24(3):173-182. 10.15430/JCP.2019.24.3.173.

Sex-related Alterations of Gut Microbiota in the C57BL/6 Mouse Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

• Son HJ
• Kim N
• Song CH
• Nam RH
• Choi SI
• Kim JS
• Lee DH

• KMID: 2468799
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15430/JCP.2019.24.3.173

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Gut microbiota is closely associated with development and exacerbation of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The aim of this study was to investigate differences in gut microbiota depending on sex and changes of gut microbiota during IBD developments.
METHODS
16s rRNA metagenomic sequencing was performed for fecal materials from 8-week-old wild type (WT) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) knockout (KO) C57BL/6 mice of both sexes. Diversity indices, relative abundance of microbiota, and linear discriminant analysis effect size were examined to compare microbial communities between groups. Clustering of groups was performed by principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA). Functional capabilities of microbiota were estimated using phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database.
RESULTS
PCoA and UPGMA tree analysis of beta-diversity demonstrated significant differences in gut microbiota between male and female groups of WT mice, but not of IL-10 KO mice. Firmicutes to Bacteroides ratio was higher in male group than that in female group in both WT mice and IL-10 KO mice. Phylum Proteobacteria significantly increased in female IL-10 KO mice than that in female WT mice. At species level, Lactobacillus murinus, Bacteroides acidifaciens, and Helicobacter hepaticus significantly increased in IL-10 KO mice than in WT mice. The relative abundance of beta-glucuronidase (K01195) was higher in female IL-10 KO mice than that in female WT mice by PICRUSt.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that microbiota-host interactions might differ between sexes during development of IBD.

Keyword

Gut microbiota; Sex differences; Inflammatory bowel disease; Sequence analysis; Interleukin-10

MeSH Terms

Animals
Bacteroides
Female
Firmicutes
Gastrointestinal Microbiome*
Genome
Glucuronidase
Helicobacter hepaticus
Humans
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases*
Interleukin-10
Lactobacillus
Male
Metagenomics
Methods
Mice*
Microbiota
Proteobacteria
Sequence Analysis
Sex Characteristics
Trees
Glucuronidase
Interleukin-10