Jackowetz John Nicholas, Hanson Carly S, Michael Minto, Tsoukalas Kiriako, Villanueva Cassandra, Kozak Peter A
Hydrosome Labs LLC, 640 Blackhawk Drive, Westmont, IL 60559, USA.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2025 Aug 5;15(15):1193. doi: 10.3390/nano15151193.
Ultrafine bubbles (UFBs) represent an emerging technology with unique physicochemical properties. This study investigated the effects of air-filled UFBs infused in drinking water on gut microbiota composition and the associated health markers in Sprague Dawley rats over a 12-week period. Using a two-phase design, UFB concentration was increased from 1.7 × 10 to 6.5 × 10 UFBs/mL at week 7 to assess dose-dependent effects. Administration of UFBs in drinking water induced significant shifts in gut microbiome populations, characterized by increased Bacteroidetes (+122% weeks 8-12) and decreased Firmicutes (-43% weeks 8-12) compared to controls. These microbial shifts coincided with enhanced short-chain fatty acid production (butyrate +56.0%, ≤ 0.001; valerate +63.1%, ≤ 0.01) and reduced inflammatory markers (TNF-α -84.0%, ≤ 0.05; IL-1β -41.0%, ≤ 0.05; IL-10 -69.8%, ≤ 0.05). UFB effects demonstrated systematic concentration-dependent threshold responses, with 85.7% of parameters exhibiting directional reversals between low (1.7 × 10 UFBs/mL) and high (6.5 × 10 UFBs/mL) concentration phases rather than linear dose-response relationships. The systematic nature of these threshold effects, with 71.4% of parameters achieving statistical significance ( ≤ 0.05), indicates concentration-dependent biological mechanisms rather than random effects on gut biology. Despite current metagenomic techniques identifying only 25% of the total gut microbiome, the observed changes in characterized species and metabolites demonstrate UFB technology's therapeutic potential for conditions requiring microbiome modulation, providing new insights into UFB influence on complex biological systems.
超细气泡（UFBs）是一项具有独特物理化学性质的新兴技术。本研究调查了在12周时间内，饮用水中注入的充气超细气泡对斯普拉格-道利大鼠肠道微生物群组成及相关健康指标的影响。采用两阶段设计，在第7周将UFB浓度从1.7×10增加到6.5×10个UFBs/mL，以评估剂量依赖性效应。与对照组相比，饮用水中添加UFB导致肠道微生物种群发生显著变化，其特征为拟杆菌门增加（第8 - 12周增加122%），厚壁菌门减少（第8 - 12周减少43%）。这些微生物变化与短链脂肪酸产量增加（丁酸盐增加56.0%，P≤0.001；戊酸盐增加63.1%，P≤0.01）和炎症标志物减少（肿瘤坏死因子-α减少84.0%，P≤0.05；白细胞介素-1β减少41.0%，P≤0.05；白细胞介素-10减少69.8%，P≤0.05）同时出现。UFB效应表现出系统的浓度依赖性阈值反应，85.7%的参数在低浓度（1.7×10个UFBs/mL）和高浓度（6.5×10个UFBs/mL）阶段呈现出方向性逆转，而非线性剂量反应关系。这些阈值效应具有系统性，71.4%的参数具有统计学意义（P≤0.05），表明存在浓度依赖性生物学机制，而非对肠道生物学的随机影响。尽管目前的宏基因组技术仅能识别出总肠道微生物群的25%，但所观察到的特征物种和代谢物的变化证明了UFB技术在需要调节微生物群的病症中的治疗潜力，为UFB对复杂生物系统的影响提供了新的见解。
