Sulforaphane alter the microbiota and mitigate colitis severity on mice ulcerative colitis induced by DSS

Abstract

Sulforaphane (SFN) is a kind of natural isothiocyanate, which exists in cruciferous plants. Only few studies were about the anti-inflammatory effects of sulforaphane in ulcerative colitis. In this study, our purpose is to explore the effects of sulforaphane on the intestinal microbial community of UC mice. The severity of mice colitis were measured by colon length, survial rate, body weight and disease activity index (DAI) score. Histological and morphological evaluation of colon tissues were performed by HE. 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing was used to analyza the changes of mouse flora. The variety of flora expression were explored using quantitative PCR. Sulforaphane treated mice had larger body weight and longer colon length than DSS-induced mice. The colon tissues of DSS group showed congestion and edema. Meanwhile, treatment with sulforaphane effectively reducted the damage scores and MPO activity. Sulforaphane reversed DSS-induced gut dysbiosis. Sulforaphane would shift the balance to Butyricicoccus on inflammation. The possible anti-inflammatory mechanism of sulforaphane is to coordinate with the probiotics such as Butyricicoccus. In summary, these findings proved that sulforaphane might be a useful content and serve as a potential therapy in the treatment of UC.

Keywords: Gut dysbiosis; Sulforaphane; Ulcerative colitis.

Fig. 1

Effects of Sulforaphane (SFN) on clinical signs in DSS-induced colonitis. (n = 6 per group). a DSS-induced ulcerative colitis caused the loss of body weight in mice. b Disease activity index score in the SFN and DSS groups. c, d Effect of SFN on DSS-induced colon shortening. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001

Fig. 2

Sulforaphane (SFN) pretreatment alleviated DSS-induced colon inflammation (a) Histopathological changes after DSS stimulation in colon (×40, ×200). b Effects of SFN on microscopic damage scores. c Effects of SFN on MPO activity. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001

Fig. 3

Sulforaphane (SFN) modulated the structure and diversity of gut microbiota. a Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and b Alpha diversity analysis at the OTU level of mouse’s fecal microbiota. c–e Shannon index in different group. Significant differences between blank vs. DSS are indicated: ***P < 0.001. Bl represents the blank group, SFN represents the SFN group, MO represents the DSS group. a represents day 0 of the group, b represents day 7 of the group, c represents day 14 of the group. As Moc represents the day 14 of the DSS group

Fig. 4

SFN modulated the composition of gut microbiota at the phylum level. a Phylum-level taxonomic distributions of the microbial communities in feces. b–d Composition of the phylum level in the 14th day in three groups

Fig. 5

Comparison of species with significant difference in abundance among the three groups of mice by lefse analysis