Pretreatment with Bifidobacterium longum BAA2573 ameliorates dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis by modulating gut microbiota

Front Microbiol. 2023 Jun 6:14:1211259. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1211259. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Objectives: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic lifelong inflammatory disease. Probiotics such as Bifidobacterium longum are considered to be beneficial to the recovery of intestinal inflammation by interaction with gut microbiota. Our goals were to define the effect of the exclusive use of BAA2573 on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis, including improvement of symptoms, alleviation of histopathological damage, and modulation of gut microbiota.

Methods: In the present study, we pretreated C57BL/6J mice with Bifidobacterium longum BAA2573, one of the main components in an over-the-counter (OTC) probiotic mixture BIFOTO capsule, before modeling with DSS. 16S rDNA sequencing and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based non-targeted metabolomic profiling were performed with the collected feces.

Results: We found that pretreatment of Bifidobacterium longum BAA2573 given by gavage significantly improved symptoms and histopathological damage in DSS-induced colitis mice. After the BAA2573 intervention, 57 genera and 39 metabolites were significantly altered. Pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that starch and sucrose metabolism, vitamin B6 metabolism, and sphingolipid metabolism may contribute to ameliorating colitis. Moreover, we revealed that the gut microbiome and metabolites were interrelated in the BAA2573 intervention group, while Alistipes was the core genus.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the impact of BAA2573 on the gut microbiota and reveals a possible novel adjuvant therapy for IBD patients.

Keywords: DSS-induced colitis; bifidobacterium longum; gut microbiota; inflammatory bowel disease; metabolites; probiotics.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Wuxi Medical Innovation Team Project (grant no. CXTD2021011).