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. 2023 May 16;13(5):847.
doi: 10.3390/biom13050847.

The Impact of Maternal Probiotics on Intestinal Vitamin D Receptor Expression in Early Life

Anita Sharma  1 , Yueyue Yu  2 , Jing Lu  2 , Lei Lu  2 , Yong-Guo Zhang  3 , Yinglin Xia  3 , Jun Sun  3 , Erika C Claud  2
Affiliations

The Impact of Maternal Probiotics on Intestinal Vitamin D Receptor Expression in Early Life

Anita Sharma et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Vitamin D signaling via the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) has been shown to protect against intestinal inflammation. Previous studies have also reported the mutual interactions of intestinal VDR and the microbiome, indicating a potential role of probiotics in modulating VDR expression. In preterm infants, although probiotics have been shown to reduce the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), they are not currently recommended by the FDA due to potential risks in this population. No previous studies have delved into the effect of maternally administered probiotics on intestinal VDR expression in early life. Using an infancy mouse model, we found that young mice exposed to maternally administered probiotics (SPF/LB) maintained higher colonic VDR expression than our unexposed mice (SPF) in the face of a systemic inflammatory stimulus. These findings indicate a potential role for microbiome-modulating therapies in preventing diseases such as NEC through the enhancement of VDR signaling.

Keywords: NF-κB; VDR; infant; inflammation; intestine; microbiome; neonatal; probiotic; vitamin D.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
25(OH) Vitamin D levels in 2-week-old and 4-week-old SPF and SPF/LB mice. * denotes significance with p-value = 0.04; ns = non significance with p-value 0.60; n ≥ 3 for all subgroups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) baseline colonic VDR expression and representative immunohistochemistry in: 2-week-old SPF (A) and SPF/LB (B) mice. * denotes significance with p-value = 0.01. There were 5 pups included in SPF and 3 pups included in SPF/LB subgroups. Scale bar = 20 μm; (b) baseline colonic VDR expression and representative immunohistochemistry in 4-week-old SPF (C) and SPF/LB (D) mice. ns = non-significance with p-value 0.19. 3 pups were included in SPF and 4 pups were included in SPF/LB subgroups. Scale bar = 20 μm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Colonic VDR expression and representative immunohistochemistry in: 4-week-old SPF mice at baseline (A) and following i.p. treatment with IL-1β (B). **** denotes statistical significance with p-value < 0.0001. There were 3 pups included in SPF and 6 pups included in SPF with IL-1β subgroups. Scale bar = 20 μm; 4-week-old SPF/LB mice at baseline (C) and following i.p. treatment with IL-1β (D); ns denotes non-significance with p-value 0.13. There were 4 pups included in SPF/LB and 5 pups included in SPF/LB with IL-1β subgroups. Scale bar = 20 μm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Colonic phospho-p65 expression and representative immunohistochemistry in: 4-week-old SPF (A) and SPF with IL-1β (B) mice. ** denotes statistical significance with p-value = 0.003. There were 3 pups included in SPF and 6 pups included in SPF with IL-1β subgroups. Scale bar = 20 μm; 4-week-old SPF/LB (C) and SPF/LB with IL-1β (D) mice. ** denotes statistical significance with p-value = 0.004. There were 4 pups included in SPF/LB and 5 pups included in SPF/LB with IL-1β subgroups. Scale bar = 20 μm; further subgroup analysis compared: 4-week-old SPF and SPF/LB mice; * denotes statistical significance with p-value = 0.01; 4-week-old SPF with IL-1β and SPF/LB with IL-1β mice; *** denotes statistical significance with p-value = 0.0007.
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