The harmful intestinal microbial community accumulates during DKD exacerbation and microbiome-metabolome combined validation in a mouse model

Jin Shang; Wen Cui; Ruixue Guo; Yiding Zhang; Peipei Wang; Wei Yu; Xuejun Zheng; Ting Wang; Yijun Dong; Jing Zhao; Suying Ding; Jing Xiao; Zhigang Ren; Zhanzheng Zhao

doi:10.3389/fendo.2022.964389

The harmful intestinal microbial community accumulates during DKD exacerbation and microbiome-metabolome combined validation in a mouse model

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022 Dec 19:13:964389. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.964389. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jin Shang^{1

2

3

4}, Wen Cui^{1

2}, Ruixue Guo^{1

2}, Yiding Zhang^{1

2}, Peipei Wang^{1

2}, Wei Yu^{1

2}, Xuejun Zheng^{1

2}, Ting Wang^{1

2}, Yijun Dong^{1

2}, Jing Zhao^{1

2}, Suying Ding^{2

5}, Jing Xiao^{1

2}, Zhigang Ren^{2

6}, Zhanzheng Zhao^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
² Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
³ Laboratory Animal Platform of Academy of Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁴ Laboratory of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁵ Health Management Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.

Abstract

Objective: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the most prevalent complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) and is associated with gut microbial dysbiosis. We aim to build a diagnostic model to aid clinical practice and uncover a crucial harmful microbial community that contributes to DKD pathogenesis and exacerbation.

Design: A total of 528 fecal samples from 180 DKD patients and 348 non-DKD populations (138 DM and 210 healthy volunteers) from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were recruited and randomly divided into a discovery phase and a validation phase. The gut microbial composition was compared using 16S rRNA sequencing. Then, the 180 DKD patients were stratified into four groups based on clinical stages and underwent gut microbiota analysis. We established DKD mouse models and a healthy fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) model to validate the effects of gut microbiota on DKD and select the potential harmful microbial community. Untargeted metabolome-microbiome combined analysis of mouse models helps decipher the pathogenetic mechanism from a metabolic perspective.

Results: The diversity of the gut microbiome was significantly decreased in DKD patients when compared with that of the non-DKD population and was increased in the patients with more advanced DKD stages. The DKD severity in mice was relieved after healthy gut microbiota reconstruction. The common harmful microbial community was accumulated in the subjects with more severe DKD phenotypes (i.e., DKD and DKD5 patients and DKD mice). The harmful microbial community was positively associated with the serum injurious metabolites (e.g., cholic acid and hippuric acid).

Conclusion: The fecal microbial community was altered markedly in DKD. Combining the fecal analysis of both human and animal models selected the accumulated harmful pathogens. Partially recovering healthy gut microbiota can relieve DKD phenotypes via influencing pathogens' effect on DKD mice's metabolism.

Keywords: diabetic nephropathy; gut microbiota; molecular mechanism; pathogenetic analysis; untargeted (global) metabolomics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Disease Models, Animal
Feces
Humans
Metabolome*
Mice
Microbiota*
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / analysis
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S