Department of Immunology, Pathophysiology and Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Norwida 31, Wroclaw, 50-375, Poland.
Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland.
BMC Vet Res. 2023 Dec 20;19(1):281. doi: 10.1186/s12917-023-03824-9.
Feline chronic enteropathy is a set of disorders defined as the presence of clinical signs of gastrointestinal disease for at least three weeks. The most common final diagnoses are inflammatory bowel disease and alimentary small cell lymphoma. The etiopathogenesis of these diseases is incompletely understood; however, it is hypothesised that they involve a combination of factors, including altered composition and/or functionality of the intestinal microbiome. An important factor in the interplay of the microbiome and host is the production of short- and branched-chain fatty acids. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible differences in faecal microbiota diversity, composition and fatty acid production between cats suffering from chronic enteropathy and healthy cats. Sixteen cats suffering from chronic enteropathy and fourteen healthy control cats were enrolled in the study. The microbiota compositions of faecal samples were analysed by using next-generation amplicon sequencing of the V3V4 fragment of the 16S rRNA gene. Fatty acids were evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography.
Both the alpha and beta diversities were significantly lower in samples obtained from cats with chronic enteropathy. The relative abundance of the phylum Proteobacteria, orders Lactobacillales and Enterobacterales, family Enteriobacteriaceae and genus Escherichia Shigella were higher in diseased cats, whereas the abundance of the phylum Bacteroidota and order Peptococcales were higher in control cats. The faecal concentrations of short-chain fatty acids were higher in cats with chronic enteropathy, with lower propionate proportions and higher butyrate proportions.
The study revealed alterations in microbiota compositions and short-chain fatty acid concentration in cats suffering from chronic enteropathy, which is an important finding both for research on the pathogenesis of the disease and for potential therapeutic interventions in the form of faecal microbiota transplantation and/or probiotic supplementation.
猫慢性肠炎是一组定义为存在胃肠道疾病临床症状至少 3 周的疾病。最常见的最终诊断是炎症性肠病和消化道小细胞淋巴瘤。这些疾病的病因发病机制尚不完全清楚；然而，据推测它们涉及多种因素，包括肠道微生物组的组成和/或功能改变。微生物组和宿主相互作用的一个重要因素是短链和支链脂肪酸的产生。本研究旨在评估患有慢性肠炎的猫和健康猫之间粪便微生物群多样性、组成和脂肪酸产生的可能差异。研究纳入了 16 只患有慢性肠炎的猫和 14 只健康对照猫。通过对 16S rRNA 基因 V3V4 片段进行下一代扩增子测序分析粪便样本的微生物群组成。通过高效液相色谱法评估脂肪酸。
慢性肠炎猫粪便样本的 alpha 和 beta 多样性均显著降低。患病猫中厚壁菌门、乳杆菌目和肠杆菌目、肠杆菌科和大肠埃希氏菌志贺氏菌属的相对丰度较高，而健康猫中拟杆菌门和消化球菌目丰度较高。慢性肠炎猫粪便中短链脂肪酸浓度较高，丙酸比例较低，丁酸比例较高。
本研究揭示了患有慢性肠炎的猫的微生物群组成和短链脂肪酸浓度的改变，这一发现对疾病发病机制的研究以及粪便微生物群移植和/或益生菌补充等潜在治疗干预具有重要意义。
