Altered Intestinal Microbiota with Increased Abundance of Prevotella Is Associated with High Risk of Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Alterations in gut microbiota are postulated to be an etiologic factor in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). To determine whether IBS patients in China exhibited differences in their gut microbial composition, fecal samples were collected from diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D) and healthy controls and evaluated by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence and quantitative real-time PCR. A mouse model of postinfectious IBS (PI-IBS) was established to determine whether the altered gut microbiota was associated with increased visceral hypersensitivity. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the bacterial community profiles between IBS-D patients and healthy controls. Prevotella was more abundant in fecal samples from IBS-D patients compared with healthy controls (p<0.05). Meanwhile, there were significant reductions in the quantity of Bacteroides, Bifidobacteria, and Lactobacillus in IBS-D patients compared with healthy controls (p<0.05). Animal models similarly showed an increased abundance of Prevotella in fecal samples compared with control mice (p<0.05). Finally, after the PI-IBS mice were cohoused with control mice, both the relative abundance of Prevotella and visceral hypersensitivity of PI-IBS mice were decreased. In conclusion, the altered intestinal microbiota is associated with increased visceral hypersensitivity and enterotype enriched with Prevotella may be positively associated with high risk of IBS-D

Serum Microcystin-LR Levels Linked with Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Matched Case-Control Study in China

Microcystin-LR (MC-LR), the most prevalent and diverse cyanotoxin produced by harmful cyanobacterial blooms, has been linked to gastrointestinal toxicity. Therefore, we conducted a case-control study across four regions in China to investigate this relationship. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cases (219) were matched with healthy controls (438) based on age and gender and conditional logistic regression models and Restricted cubic splines were used to evaluate the association between MC-LR exposure and IBD risk. We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction to measure the expression levels of inflammatory factors. The levels of protein expression in the colorectum were determined using Western blotting (WB). Compared to the lowest quartile of serum MC-LR levels, the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the highest quartiles of serum MC-LR levels were 5.51 (2.70, 11.21). The RCS was shown the association between serum MC-LR levels and IBD risk was nonlinear (Pnonlinear < 0.001). In the animal experiments, MC-LR resulted in colorectal injury via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Our study provides the evidence that serum MC-LR exposure is significantly associated with the risk of IBD in China. Animal study results indicate that MC-LR probably causes IBD via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway