Moderate-Intensity Physical Exercise Affects the Exercise Performance and Gut Microbiota of Mice

Abstract

The gut microbiota is closely associated with the health of the host and is affected by many factors, including exercise. In this study, we compared the gut microbial changes and exercise performance over a 14-week period in mice that performed exercise (NE; n = 15) and mice that did not perform exercise (NC; n = 15). Mice were subjected to stool collection and exercise tests one week prior to adaptive training and after 2, 6, 10, and 14 weeks of exercise. Bacteria associated with the stool samples were assessed via Illumina-based 16S rRNA gene sequencing. While there was no significant difference in body weight between the groups (p > 0.05), the NE group had a significantly higher exercise performance from weeks 2–14 (p < 0.01) and lower fat coefficient (p < 0.01) compared with the NC group. The Shannon index of the gut microbiota in the NC group was higher than that in the NE group at weeks 6 and 10, and the Chao1 index was higher than that in the NE group at week 14. Exercise performance positively correlated with the relative abundance of Phascolarctobacterium. Grouped time series data analysis demonstrated that Bifidobacteria, Coprococcus, and one unnamed genus in the Clostridiales order were significantly increased in the NE group, which correlated with increased glucose, flavonoid, arginine, and proline metabolism. In conclusion, moderate-intensity treadmill exercise significantly increased the exercise performance of mice and changed the core bacteria and bacterial metabolic activity. These results provide a reference for studying the effects of exercise intervention and exercise performance on the gut microbiota of mice.

Impaired Intracellular Ca2+ Dynamics, M-Band and Sarcomere Fragility in Skeletal Muscles of Obscurin KO Mice

“…On this note, it is worth underlining that the experiments reported in this manuscript were obtained by carefully crossing heterozygous mice and that experiments were also repeated with the progeny of new Obscn KO founders, kindly provided again by Dr. Ju Chen at the University of California, San Diego. Moreover, we cannot rule out the possibility that additional events, including changes in the diet which may affect mice microbiota, may have contributed over the years to modify the mouse phenotype [59]. All in all, we are rather inclined to explain the changes in the running ability of the Obscn KO mice as some sort of adaptation.…”

Essential Factors for a Healthy Microbiome: A Scoping Review

“…The difficulty in making general recommendations is that it was rare to find a physical activity paper within our search criteria that controlled for diet [ 31 , 131 ]. Animal studies demonstrate that exercise performance and conditioning that takes place in long-term interventions have positive effects on both the microbiome and host metabolism [ 145 ]. Transferring this model to human studies will prove challenging because of the need to maintain a controlled research diet over the length of the study.…”

Does physical activity associate with gut microbiome and survival outcomes of Chinese metastatic colorectal cancer patients? A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

“…In 2018, researchers from the Mayo Clinic found that overweight adults were more likely to successfully lose weight if they had a higher abundance of Phascolarctobacterium [ 21 ]. In addition to its role in energy metabolism [ 22 ], Phascolarctobacterium could reduce the availability of luminal succinate and therefore prevent the growth of Clostridioides difficile in the human body, which could cause severe intestinal inflammation [ 23 ]. Ruminococcaceae is another beneficial bacterium that can maintain human digestive function and reduce the risk of gastrointestinal tumor growth.…”