Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53705, USA.
Carbone Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, 53705, USA.
Transl Psychiatry. 2018 Jan 10;8(1):6. doi: 10.1038/s41398-017-0022-5.
Altered gut microbiome populations are associated with a broad range of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder and mood disorders. In animal models, modulation of gut microbiome populations via dietary manipulation influences brain function and behavior and has been shown to ameliorate behavioral symptoms. With striking differences in microbiome-driven behavior, we explored whether these behavioral changes are also accompanied by corresponding changes in neural tissue microstructure. Utilizing diffusion tensor imaging, we identified global changes in white matter structural integrity occurring in a diet-dependent manner. Analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing of gut bacteria also showed changes in bacterial populations as a function of diet. Changes in brain structure were found to be associated with diet-dependent changes in gut microbiome populations using a machine learning classifier for quantitative assessment of the strength of microbiome-brain region associations. These associations allow us to further test our understanding of the gut-brain-microbiota axis by revealing possible links between altered and dysbiotic gut microbiome populations and changes in brain structure, highlighting the potential impact of diet and metagenomic effects in neuroimaging.
肠道微生物群落的改变与广泛的神经发育障碍有关，包括自闭症谱系障碍和情绪障碍。在动物模型中，通过饮食干预调节肠道微生物群落会影响大脑功能和行为，并已被证明可以改善行为症状。鉴于肠道微生物群驱动的行为存在显著差异，我们探讨了这些行为变化是否也伴随着神经组织微观结构的相应变化。利用弥散张量成像，我们确定了以饮食依赖方式发生的白质结构完整性的全局变化。肠道细菌 16S 核糖体 RNA 测序分析也显示出细菌种群随饮食而变化。使用机器学习分类器对微生物组-大脑区域关联的强度进行定量评估，发现大脑结构的变化与肠道微生物群落的饮食依赖性变化相关。这些关联使我们能够通过揭示异常和失调的肠道微生物群落与大脑结构变化之间的可能联系，进一步测试我们对肠道-大脑-微生物群轴的理解，突出了饮食和宏基因组效应在神经影像学中的潜在影响。
