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. 2016:2016:9236196.
doi: 10.1155/2016/9236196. Epub 2016 Sep 28.

Dietary Chitosan Supplementation Increases Microbial Diversity and Attenuates the Severity of Citrobacter rodentium Infection in Mice

Guiping Guan  1 , Hongbing Wang  2 , Shuai Chen  3 , Gang Liu  3 , Xia Xiong  3 , Bie Tan  3 , Veeramuthu Duraipandiyan  4 , Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi  4 , Jun Fang  5
Affiliations

Dietary Chitosan Supplementation Increases Microbial Diversity and Attenuates the Severity of Citrobacter rodentium Infection in Mice

Guiping Guan et al. Mediators Inflamm. 2016.

Abstract

C57BL/6 mice were tested in order to investigate the effects of dietary chitosan (COS) supplements on intestinal microflora and resistance to Citrobacter rodentium infection. The findings reveal that, after consuming a 300 mg/kg COS diet for 14 days, microflora became more diverse as a result of the supplement. Mice receiving COS exhibited an increase in the percentage of Bacteroidetes phylum and a decrease in the percentage of Firmicutes phylum. After Citrobacter rodentium infection, the histopathology scores indicated that COS feeding resulted in less severe colitis. IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly lower in colon from COS-feeding mice than those in the control group. Furthermore, mice in COS group were also found to experience inhibited activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) in the colonic tissue. Overall, the findings revealed that adding 300 mg/kg COS to the diet changed the composition of the intestinal microflora of mice, resulting in suppressed NF-κB activation and less production of TNF-α and IL-6; and these changes led to better control of inflammation and resolution of infection with C. rodentium.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
D7 postinfection C. rodentium levels in colon contents and feces of infected C57BL/6 mice. Feces and colon contents were gathered before undergoing homogenisation and being plated in serial dilution on LB agar (n = 10).
Figure 2
Figure 2
D7 postinfection histopathology scores of each mouse (n = 10).
Figure 3
Figure 3
D7 postinfection composition of the intestinal microbiota. Microbial composition in the colon and feces of both groups (n = 6). Control mice were given standard drinking water and a basal rodent diet, whilst COS mice were given the same water and diet with the addition of COS at 300 mg/kg.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Control and COS group (n = 6) mucosal inflammatory responses. (a) RT-PRC evaluation of IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA level. (b) ELISA evaluation of IL-6 and TNF-α protein level.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Immunoblotting of (a) nuclear NF-κB (p65) and (b) phosphorylated nuclear NF-κB (p65) in control and COS group (n = 6).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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