Modulating the Microbiome and Immune Responses Using Whole Plant Fibre in Synbiotic Combination with Fibre-Digesting Probiotic Attenuates Chronic Colonic Inflammation in Spontaneous Colitic Mice Model of IBD

Abstract

A probiotic and prebiotic food ingredient combination was tested for synergistic functioning in modulation of the colonic microbiome and remediation of the gastrointestinal immune and inflammatory responses in a spontaneous colitic mouse model. Bacillus coagulans MTCC5856 spores with capability to metabolise complex plant polysaccharides were supplemented with complex whole-plant prebiotic sugarcane fibre (PSCF). The combined and individual efficacies were tested for their influence on the outcomes of chronic inflammation in Muc2 mutant colitic Winnie mice. The mice were fed normal chow diet supplemented with either ingredient or a combination for 21 days. Synbiotic combined supplementation ameliorated clinical symptoms and histological colonic damage scores more effectively than either B. coagulans or PSCF alone. PSCF and B. coagulans alone also induced considerable immunomodulatory effects. Synbiotic supplementation however was the most efficacious in modulating the overall immune profile compared to the unsupplemented Winnie-control. The augmented synbiotic effect could potentially be due to a combination of increased levels of fermentation products, direct immune-modulating abilities of the components, their capability to reduce colonic epithelial damage and/or modulation of the microbiota. The beneficial effects of the supplementation with a complex plant fibre and a fibre-degrading probiotic parallel the effects seen in human microbiota with high plant fibre diets.

Idebenone Protects against Spontaneous Chronic Murine Colitis by Alleviating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Inflammatory Response

“…Disease Activity Index (DAI) was calculated daily by adding the individual scores of body weight, blood in stool and stool consistency over the whole period of the experiment, as mentioned previously [40,41,50]. Briefly, the following parameters were considered: body weight loss scores (0 = 0-1%, 1 = 1-5%, 2 = 6-10% and 3 = 11-15%), stool consistency scores (0 = hard/formed stool, 1 = soft/loose stool, 2 = very soft and 3 = watery stool/diarrhea) and bloody stool scores (0 = negative hemoccult/ no traces of blood, 1 = positive hemoccult, 2 = visible traces of blood and 3 = gross/rectal bleeding).…”

“…They were embedded in paraffin wax and 5-µm thick tissue sections were cut using a rotary microtome. Paraffin-embedded tissue slides were then stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) dyes and were used for histopathological grading in a blinded manner, as described previously [40,41,51]. Images were captured using a Leica microscope (DM500, Leica Microsystems, Mannheim, Germany).…”

“…Ltd., New South Wales, Australia) and 10% v/v fetal bovine serum (Gibco Life Technologies Pty. Ltd., Victoria, Australia) in a 12-well plate, as described previously [40,41,50,53]. After overnight incubation, supernatant was collected, centrifuged and stored at −80 • C until further analysis.…”

“…Like in human patients, colitis in Winnie is characterized by relapses and remissions [39]. The colonic damage in distal colon (DC) of Winnie is more prominent as compared to that in the proximal colon (PC) due to higher epithelial stress and more microbial dysbiosis [18,24,40]. Histopathology of the DC of Winnie mice revealed a UC-like phenotype that includes crypt abscesses, reduced goblet cell numbers, crypt elongations, mucosal surface erosion, infiltration of neutrophils and a distorted crypt architecture [18].…”

“…Histopathology of the DC of Winnie mice revealed a UC-like phenotype that includes crypt abscesses, reduced goblet cell numbers, crypt elongations, mucosal surface erosion, infiltration of neutrophils and a distorted crypt architecture [18]. Recently, the Winnie model was successfully used to test several clinical drugs such as MCC950, glucocorticoids and thiopurines, and dietary fibers [24,[40][41][42], that showed therapeutic effects comparable to UC patients.…”