The Influence of Diet Change and Oral Metformin on Blood Glucose Regulation and the Fecal Microbiota of Healthy Horses.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ericsson AC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8065426 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundGastrointestinal microbiota can be influenced by several factors, including diet and systemic inflammation, and in turn could act as a modulator of the allergic response. Fecal microbiota of horses with asthma has not been described.Hypothesis/objectivesAnalyze the bacterial fecal microbiota of horses with and without asthma under different environment and diet conditions, during both remission and exacerbation.MethodsProspective observational study. Feces from 6 asthmatic and 6 healthy horses were collected under 3 different conditions: on pasture, housed indoors receiving good quality hay ("good hay"), and housed indoors receiving poor quality hay ("dusty hay"). Sequencing was performed using an Illumina MiSeq platform and data were processed using the software mothur v.1.41.3 and LEfSe.ResultsIn horses with asthma, low-abundance bacteria were more affected by changes in environment and diet (ie, when horses were experiencing an exacerbation), as shown by changes in membership and results from the LEfSe analysis. There was a significant increase in the relative abundance of Fibrobacter in healthy horses eating hay, a change that was not observed in horses with asthma.Conclusions and clinical importanceThe intestinal microbiota of horses with asthma does not adapt in the same way to changes in diet and environment compared to the microbiota of healthy horses. Mechanisms explaining how airway obstruction and inflammation could influence the intestinal microbiota and how in turn this microbiota could modulate systemic inflammation in asthmatic horses deserves further investigation.
| S-EPMC7096608 | biostudies-literature
Project description:(1) Background: The intestinal microbiota plays an essential role in maintaining the host's health. Dysbiosis of the equine hindgut microbiota can alter the fermentation patterns and cause metabolic disorders. (2) Methods: This study compared the fecal microbiota composition of horses with intestinal disease and their healthy counterparts living in Korea using 16S rRNA sequencing from fecal samples. A total of 52 fecal samples were collected and divided into three groups: horses with large intestinal disease (n = 20), horses with small intestinal disease (n = 8), and healthy horses (n = 24). (3) Results: Horses with intestinal diseases had fewer species and a less diverse bacterial population than healthy horses. Lactic acid bacteria, Lachnospiraceae, and Lactobacillaceae were overgrown in horses with large intestinal colic. The Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio (F/B), which is a relevant marker of gut dysbiosis, was 1.94, 2.37, and 1.74 for horses with large intestinal colic, small intestinal colic, and healthy horses, respectively. (4) Conclusions: The overgrowth of two lactic acid bacteria families, Lachnospiraceae and Lactobacillaceae, led to a decrease in hindgut pH that interfered with normal fermentation, which might cause large intestinal colic. The overgrowth of Streptococcus also led to a decrease in pH in the hindgut, which suppressed the proliferation of the methanogen and reduced methanogenesis in horses with small intestinal colic.
| S-EPMC8234941 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Equine atypical myopathy (AM) is caused by hypoglycin A (HGA) and methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG) intoxication resulting from the ingestion of seeds or seedlings of some Acer tree species. Interestingly, not all horses pasturing in the same toxic environment develop signs of the disease. In other species, it has been shown that the intestinal microbiota has an impact on digestion, metabolism, immune stimulation and protection from disease. The objective of this study was to characterize and compare fecal microbiota of horses suffering from AM and healthy co-grazers. Furthermore, potential differences in fecal microbiota regarding the outcome of diseased animals were assessed. This prospective observational study included 59 horses with AM (29 survivors and 30 non-survivors) referred to three Belgian equine hospitals and 26 clinically healthy co-grazers simultaneously sharing contaminated pastures during spring and autumn outbreak periods. Fresh fecal samples (rectal or within 30 min of defecation) were obtained from all horses and bacterial taxonomy profiling obtained by 16S amplicon sequencing was used to identify differentially distributed bacterial taxa between AM-affected horses and healthy co-grazers. Fecal microbial diversity and evenness were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in AM-affected horses as compared with their non-affected co-grazers. The relative abundance of families Ruminococcaceae, Christensenellaceae and Akkermansiaceae were higher (p ≤ 0.001) whereas those of the Lachnospiraceae (p = 0.0053), Bacteroidales (p < 0.0001) and Clostridiales (p = 0.0402) were lower in horses with AM, especially in those with a poor prognosis. While significant shifts were observed, it is still unclear whether they result from the disease or might be involved in the onset of disease pathogenesis.
| S-EPMC7919468 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Buryatian horse is an ancient breed and, as an indigenous breed, they have unique adaptive abilities to use scarce pastures, graze in winter, and survive in harsh conditions with minimal human care. In this study, fecal microbiota of Buryatian horses grazing in the warm and cold seasons were investigated using NGS technology on the Illumina MiSeq platform. We hypothesized that the composition of microbial communities in the feces of horses maintained on pasture would change in the different seasons, depending on the grass availability and different plant diets. We conducted microhistological fecal studies of horse diet composition on steppe pasture. The alpha diversity analysis showed horses had a more abundant and diverse gut microbiota in summer. There were significant effects on the beta diversity of microbial families, which were clustered by the warm and cold season in a principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), with 45% of the variation explained by two principal coordinates. This clustering by season was further confirmed by the significant differences observed in the relative abundances of microbial families and genera. The obtained results can serve as an experimental substantiation for further study of the impact of pasture grasses, which have a pharmacological effect, on the diversity of the gut microbiome and horse health.
| S-EPMC10459317 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background and aimsFecal microbial transplantation (FMT), a treatment for certain gastrointestinal conditions associated with dysbiosis in people, is also empirically employed in horses with colitis. This study used microbiota high-throughput sequencing to compare the fecal microbial profile of healthy horses to that of geriatric microbial transplant recipients experiencing diarrhea and tested whether FMT restores microbiota diversity.MethodsTo evaluate the effect of environment and donor characteristics on the intestinal microbiota, fecal samples were collected per rectum from 15 healthy young-adult (2-12 years) and 15 geriatric (≥20 years) horses. Additionally, FMT was performed for 3 consecutive days in 5 geriatric horses with diarrhea using feces from the same healthy donor. Fecal samples were collected from both donor and recipient prior to each FMT and from recipients 24 hours following the last FMT. The profile of the fecal bacterial microbiota was compared using 16S amplicon sequencing.Results and conclusionsIn contrast to diet and farm location, age did not significantly affect the healthy equine fecal microbiota, indicating that both healthy geriatric and young-adult horses may serve as FMT donors. The fecal microbiota of horses with diarrhea was significantly more variable in terms of β-diversity than that of healthy horses. An inverse correlation between diarrhea score and relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia was identified in surviving FMT recipients. At study completion, the fecal microbiota of horses which responded to FMT had a higher α-diversity than prior to treatment and was phylogenetically more similar to that of the donor.
| S-EPMC7064224 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Microbial communities along mucosal surfaces throughout the digestive tract are hypothesized as risk factors for impaired glucose regulation and the development of clinical cardiometabolic disease. We investigated whether baseline measures of subgingival microbiota predicted fasting plasma glucose (FPG) longitudinally. The Oral Infections, Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance Study (ORIGINS) enrolled 230 diabetes-free adults (77% female) aged 20 to 55 y (mean ± SD, 34 ± 10 y) from whom baseline subgingival plaque and longitudinal FPG were measured. DNA was extracted from subgingival plaque, and V3 to V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene were sequenced. FPG was measured at baseline and again at 2 y; glucose change was defined as follow-up minus baseline. Multivariable linear models regressed 2-y glucose change onto baseline measures of community diversity and abundances of 369 individual taxa. A microbial dysbiosis index (MDI) summarizing top individual taxa associated with glucose change was calculated and used in regression models. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, smoking status, body mass index, and baseline glucose levels. Statistical significance was based on the false discovery rate (FDR; <0.05) or a Bonferroni-corrected P value of 1 × 10-4, derived from the initial 369 hypothesis tests for specific taxa. Mean 2-y FPG change was 1.5 ± 8 mg/dL. Baseline levels of 9 taxa predicted FPG change (all FDR <0.05), among which Stomatobaculum sp oral taxon 097 and Atopobium spp predicted greater FPG change, while Leptotrichia sp oral taxon 498 predicted lesser FPG change (all 3 P values, Bonferroni significant). The MDI explained 6% of variation in longitudinal glucose change (P < 0.001), and baseline glucose levels explained 10% of variation (P < 0.0001). FPG change values ± SE in the third versus first tertile of the MDI were 4.5 ± 0.9 versus 1.6 ± 0.9 (P < 1 × 10-4). Subgingival microbiota predict 2-y glucose change among diabetes-free men and women.
| S-EPMC6873283 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The intestinal tract houses one of the richest and most complex microbial populations on the planet, and plays a critical role in health and a wide range of diseases. Limited studies using new sequencing technologies in horses are available. The objective of this study was to characterize the fecal microbiome of healthy horses and to compare the fecal microbiome of healthy horses to that of horses with undifferentiated colitis. A total of 195,748 sequences obtained from 6 healthy horses and 10 horses affected by undifferentiated colitis were analyzed. Firmicutes predominated (68%) among healthy horses followed by Bacteroidetes (14%) and Proteobacteria (10%). In contrast, Bacteroidetes (40%) was the most abundant phylum among horses with colitis, followed by Firmicutes (30%) and Proteobacteria (18%). Healthy horses had a significantly higher relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Spirochaetes while horses with colitis had significantly more Fusobacteria. Members of the Clostridia class were more abundant in healthy horses. Members of the Lachnospiraceae family were the most frequently shared among healthy individuals. The species richness reported here indicates the complexity of the equine intestinal microbiome. The predominance of Clostridia demonstrates the importance of this group of bacteria in healthy horses. The marked differences in the microbiome between healthy horses and horses with colitis indicate that colitis may be a disease of gut dysbiosis, rather than one that occurs simply through overgrowth of an individual pathogen.
| S-EPMC3409227 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The role of microbiota in Lynch syndrome (LS) is still under debate. We compared oral and fecal microbiota of LS saliva and stool samples with normal healthy controls (NHC). Total DNA was purified from feces and saliva to amplify the V3-V4 region of the 16s rRNA gene. Sequences with a high-quality score and length >250 bp were used for taxonomic analysis with QIIME software. Compared to NHC, LS fecal samples demonstrated a statistically significant increase of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and a significant decrease of Firmicutes at the phylum level and of Ruminococcaceae at the family level. Moreover, LS oral samples exhibited a statistically significant increase of Veillonellaceae and Leptotrichiaceae and a statistically significant decrease of Pasteurellaceae. A beta-diversity index allowed differentiation of the two groups. A peculiar microbial signature is associated with LS, similar to that of sporadic colorectal cancer and Crohn's disease. These data suggest a possible role of proinflammatory bacteria in tumor development in a condition of genetic predisposition, such as LS.
| S-EPMC7563889 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:Prophylactic supplementation of psyllium husk is recommended to enhance passage of ingested sand from the gastrointestinal tracts of horses. We hypothesized that psyllium supplementation would increase fecal sand passage and favorably alter bacterial populations in the hindgut. Six yearlings and six mature mares were fed a psyllium supplement in the diet daily for seven days. Voluntarily-voided feces were collected over the course of 29 days, prior, during, and after treatment. Feces were analyzed for acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent insoluble ash analyses. Microbial DNA was also isolated, and the V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene was PCR-amplified and sequenced using MiSeq technology. RESULTS:Fecal ADF concentration was greater in adults while silica concentration was greater in yearlings. Mature mare fecal ADF decreased during and just after supplementation but thereafter increased. No changes in silica levels were noted in either group over time. Fecal microbial population phylogenetic diversity was greatest mid-supplementation and lowest at 11 days post-supplementation. Functional profiles of the microbial communities presented some benefits for psyllium supplementation. These findings provide compelling evidence for further detailed studies of prophylactic psyllium supplementation.
| S-EPMC7526151 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Exercise plays an important role in regulating energy homeostasis, which affects the diversity of the intestinal microbial community in humans and animals. To the best of the authors' knowledge, few studies have reported the associations between horse gut microbiota along with their predicted metabolic activities and the athletic ability of Jeju horses and Thoroughbreds living in Korea. This study was conducted to investigate the association between the gut microbiota and athletic performance in horses. This study sequenced the V3 and V4 hypervariable regions of the partial 16S rRNA genes obtained from racehorse fecal samples and compared the fecal microbiota between high- and low-performance Jeju horses and Thoroughbreds. Forty-nine fecal samples were divided into four groups: high-performance Jeju horses (HJ, n = 13), low-performance Jeju horses (LJ, n = 17), high-performance Thoroughbreds (HT, n = 9), and low-performance Thoroughbreds (LT, n = 10). The high-performance horse groups had a higher diversity of the bacterial community than the low-performance horse groups. Two common functional metabolic activities of the hindgut microbiota (i.e., tryptophan and succinate syntheses) were observed between the low-performance horse groups, indicating dysbiosis of gut microbiota and fatigue from exercise. On the other hand, high-performance horse groups showed enriched production of polyamines, butyrate, and vitamin K. The racing performance may be associated with the composition of the intestinal microbiota of Jeju horses and Thoroughbreds in Korea.
| S-EPMC11016738 | biostudies-literature