School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100091, China.
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Microbiome. 2023 Jul 6;11(1):148. doi: 10.1186/s40168-023-01581-3.
Gut microbiota have a complex role on the survivability, digestive physiology, production, and growth performance in animals. Recent studies have emphasized the effects of prebiotics therapy on the gut disease, but the relationship between elephant gut-related diseases and prebiotics remains elusive. Here, a case study was undertaken to evaluate the mechanism of inulin treatment in colic in Asian elephant (Elephas maximus Linnaeus).
Fecal samples were collected from a sick elephant and four healthy elephants. Analysis of microbial profile was carried out by 16S rRNA sequencing, and the short chain fatty acids were tested by gas chromatography. The physiological function of "inulin-microbiota" of elephant was verified in mice by fecal microbial transplantation (FMT). The expression of related proteins was determined by Western blotting and qPCR.
(1) Eating inulin can cure gut colic of the sick elephant and changed gut microbiota. (2) It was found that "inulin microbiota" from the post-treatment elephants can promote the proliferation of intestinal cells, increase the utilization of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), maintain intestinal barrier, and reduce the inflammation in mice. (3) The mechanism was inulin-gut microbiota-SCFAs-immune barrier.
Inulin contributed to rehabilitate the gut microbiota and gut immune barrier of the elephant with colic. This provides reasonable verification for using prebiotics to treat the colic in captive elephants. Prebiotics will foresure play an increasingly important role in disease prevention and treatment of captive animals in the future. Video Abstract.
肠道微生物在动物的存活、消化生理、生产和生长性能方面发挥着复杂的作用。最近的研究强调了益生元治疗对肠道疾病的影响，但大象肠道相关疾病与益生元之间的关系仍不清楚。在这里，进行了一项案例研究，以评估菊糖治疗亚洲象（Elephas maximus Linnaeus）绞痛的机制。
从一头患病大象和四头健康大象中收集粪便样本。通过 16S rRNA 测序分析微生物谱，并通过气相色谱法测试短链脂肪酸。通过粪便微生物移植（FMT）在小鼠中验证大象“菊糖-微生物群”的生理功能。通过 Western blot 和 qPCR 测定相关蛋白的表达。
（1）食用菊糖可以治愈患病大象的肠道绞痛并改变肠道微生物群。（2）发现来自治疗后大象的“菊糖微生物群”可以促进肠道细胞的增殖，增加短链脂肪酸（SCFAs）的利用，维持肠道屏障，并减少小鼠的炎症。（3）其机制为菊糖-肠道微生物群-SCFA-免疫屏障。
菊糖有助于恢复患有绞痛的大象的肠道微生物群和肠道免疫屏障。这为在圈养大象中使用益生元治疗绞痛提供了合理的验证。益生元在未来必将在圈养动物的疾病预防和治疗中发挥越来越重要的作用。视频摘要。
