Comparative evaluation of establishing a human gut microbial community within rodent models

Abstract

The structure of the human gut microbial community is determined by host genetics and environmental factors, where alterations in its structure have been associated with the onset of different diseases. Establishing a defined human gut microbial community within inbred rodent models provides a means to study microbial-related pathologies, however, an in-depth comparison of the established human gut microbiota in the different models is lacking. We compared the efficiency of establishing the bacterial component of a defined human microbial community within germ-free (GF) rats, GF mice, and antibiotic-treated specific pathogen-free mice. Remarkable differences were observed between the different rodent models. While the majority of abundant human-donor bacterial phylotypes were established in the GF rats, only a subset was present in the GF mice. Despite the fact that members of the phylum Bacteriodetes were well established in all rodent models, mice enriched for phylotypes related to species of Bacteroides. In contrary to the efficiency of Clostridiales to populate the GF rat in relative proportions to that of the human-donor, members of Clostridia cluster IV only poorly colonize the mouse gut. Thus, the genetic background of the different recipient rodent systems (that is, rats and mice) strongly influences the nature of the populating human gut microbiota, determining each model's biological suitability.

Increasing dietary nitrate has no effect on cancellous bone loss or fecal microbiome in ovariectomized rats

“…OTUs were then taxonomically annotated using UCLUST. As expected, given prior characterizations of the rodent gut microbiome, all rats were dominated by the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes 40, 41. We found a trend of increases in Proteobacteria abundance in the OVX rats (Bonferroni adjusted p = 0.052), whereas Firmicutes were more abundant in the sham rats (Bonferroni adjusted p = 0.015).…”

Quantitatively Different, yet Qualitatively Alike: A Meta-Analysis of the Mouse Core Gut Microbiome with a View towards the Human Gut Microbiome

“…have been imputed to support the growth of colonic mucosa [56], [57]. The Mistsuokella genus has recently been identified as a GM member of lean as well as obese Indians [58] Many bacterial communities from the Clostridia class including genera that were found unique for humans such as Faecalibacterium and Dialister but also Sutterella from the Proteobacteria phylum showed poor establishment after transplanting them from human into mice GI tracks [59]. It seems possible that mouse genetics disfavors certain groups of bacteria as germ-free rats presented higher recovery rate of these subgroups [59].…”

Environmental spread of microbes impacts the development of metabolic phenotypes in mice transplanted with microbial communities from humans

“…Only a subset of human bacterial phylotypes will establish in mice, and some phylotypes change abundance in the new host (Licht et al, 2007;Wos-Oxley et al, 2012). The fraction of bacterial taxa from human faecal microbiota that establishes in transplanted mice is 50-90% at the genus level (Turnbaugh et al, 2009;Ridaura et al, 2013).…”