Chen Jian-Jun, Zeng Ben-Hua, Li Wen-Wen, Zhou Chan-Juan, Fan Song-Hua, Cheng Ke, Zeng Li, Zheng Peng, Fang Liang, Wei Hong, Xie Peng
Institute of Neuroscience, Chongqing Medical University, China; Institute of Life Sciences, Chongqing Medical University, China; Joint International Research Laboratory of Reproduction & Development, Chongqing Medical University, China; Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Chongqing Medical University, China; Institute of Neuroscience and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Chongqing Medical University, China.
Department of Laboratory Animal Science, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Behav Brain Res. 2017 Mar 30;322(Pt A):34-41. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.01.021. Epub 2017 Jan 16.
Gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as an important environmental factor that could influence the brain function and behaviors through the microbiota-gut-brain axis.
Here, we used the germ-free (GF) mice to explore the effect of gut microbiota on hippocampal microRNA (miRNA) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) expression.
Behavioral tests showed that, compared to specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice, the GF mice displayed more center time, center distance and less latency to familiar food. Colonization of the GF mice with gut microbiota from SPF mice did not reverse these behaviors. However, 7 differentially expressed miRNAs and 139 mRNAs were significantly restored. Through microRNA Target Filter analysis, 4 of 7 restored miRNAs had 2232 target mRNAs. Among these target mRNAs, 21 target mRNAs levels were decreased. Further analysis showed that the most significant GO terms were metabolic process (GO: 0008152), binding (GO: 0005488) and cell part (GO: 0044464) for biological process, molecular function and cellular component, respectively, and the most significantly altered pathway was axon guidance (mmu04360).
These findings indicated that colonization of gut microbiota to adolescent GF mice was not sufficient to reverse the behavioral alterations. Gut microbiota could significantly influence the expression levels of miRNAs and mRNAs in hippocampus. Our results could provide original and valuable data for researchers to further study the microbiota-gut-brain axis.
肠道微生物群越来越被认为是一个重要的环境因素，它可以通过微生物-肠道-脑轴影响脑功能和行为。
在这里，我们使用无菌（GF）小鼠来探究肠道微生物群对海马体微小RNA（miRNA）和信使核糖核酸（mRNA）表达的影响。
行为测试表明，与无特定病原体（SPF）小鼠相比，GF小鼠在熟悉食物的中央区域花费的时间更多、移动距离更远，且潜伏期更短。用来自SPF小鼠的肠道微生物群对GF小鼠进行定殖并不能逆转这些行为。然而，7种差异表达的miRNA和139种mRNA的表达得到了显著恢复。通过微小RNA靶标筛选分析，7种恢复的miRNA中有4种具有2232个靶标mRNA。在这些靶标mRNA中，有21种靶标mRNA的水平下降。进一步分析表明，在生物过程、分子功能和细胞组成方面，最显著的基因本体（GO）术语分别是代谢过程（GO: 0008152）、结合（GO: 0005488）和细胞部分（GO: 0044464），而最显著改变的信号通路是轴突导向（mmu04360）。
这些发现表明，将肠道微生物群定殖到青春期GF小鼠体内不足以逆转行为改变。肠道微生物群可显著影响海马体中miRNA和mRNA的表达水平。我们的结果可为研究人员进一步研究微生物-肠道-脑轴提供原始且有价值的数据。
