Sex differences in colonization of gut microbiota from a man with short-term vegetarian and inulin-supplemented diet in germ-free mice

Abstract

Gnotobiotic mouse model is generally used to evaluate the efficacy of gut microbiota. Sex differences of gut microbiota are acknowledged, yet the effect of recipient’s gender on the bacterial colonization remains unclear. Here we inoculated male and female germ-free C57BL/6J mice with fecal bacteria from a man with short-term vegetarian and inulin-supplemented diet. We sequenced bacterial 16S rRNA genes V3-V4 region from donor’s feces and recipient’s colonic content. Shannon diversity index showed female recipients have higher bacteria diversity than males. Weighted UniFrac principal coordinates analysis revealed the overall structures of male recipient’s gut microbiota were significantly separated from those of females, and closer to the donor. Redundancy analysis identified 46 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) differed between the sexes. The relative abundance of 13 OTUs were higher in males, such as Parabacteroides distasonis and Blautia faecis, while 33 OTUs were overrepresented in females, including Clostridium groups and Escherichia fergusonii/Shigella sonnei. Moreover, the interactions of these differential OTUs were sexually distinct. These findings demonstrated that the intestine of male and female mice preferred to accommodate microbiota differently. Therefore, it is necessary to designate the gender of gnotobiotic mice for complete evaluation of modulatory effects of gut microbiota from human feces upon diseases.

Retention of Microbiota Diversity by Lactose-Free Milk in a Mouse Model of Elderly Gut Microbiota

“…Future in vivo studies can clarify the potential differential effect on the gut microbiota of the two preparations. Importantly, in this study, similarly to previous observations, we observed gender dependent differential responses to diet partly attributed to hormonal effects 78,79 .…”

Gut Microbiota: Effect of Pubertal Status

“…In the pubertal subjects, it was found that the abundance of genus Adlercreutzia, Dorea, Clostridium and Parabacteroides associated with the level of testosterone. A mouse model study showed that after inoculating male and female germ-free C57BL/6J mice with fecal bacteria from a man with short-term vegetarian and inulin-supplemented diet, Clostridium and Dorea were over-represented in females (25). Furthermore, Shin JH (26) reported that the abundance of Dorea correlated signi cantly with testosterone levels in men, a nding consistent with the results of our study.…”

Caesarean birth and adiposity parameters in 6‐ to 8‐year‐old urban Maya children from two cities of Yucatan, Mexico

“…Studies in humans and mice suggest that differences in endocrine and immune systems between sexes induce different gut microbiota profiles in males and females (Fransen et al, 2017). Studies have demonstrated sexual dimorphism in several aspects of gut microbiota, including their composition (Dominianni et al, 2015;Mueller et al, 2006;Li et al, 2008), their changes in response to factors such as diet (Bolnick et al, 2014;Karunasena, McMahon, Chang, & Brashears, 2014) and their diversity, structure and individual phylotype during the colonization in germ-free mice (Wang et al, 2016). Females have consistently shown lower abundance of Bacteroidetes in their microbiota, a group of bacteria with beneficial effects in metabolism (Dominianni et al, 2015;Mueller et al, 2006).…”