Alterations in intestinal mucin glycosylation have been associated with increased intestinal permeability and sensitivity to inflammation and infection. Here, we used mice lacking core 3-derived O-glycans (C3GnT-/-) to investigate the effect of impaired mucin glycosylation in the gut-brain axis. C3GnT-/- mice showed altered microbial metabolites in the caecum associated with brain function such as dimethylglycine and N-acetyl-L-tyrosine profiles as compared to C3GnT+/+ littermates. In the brain, polysialylated-neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM)-positive granule cells showed an aberrant phenotype in the dentate gyrus of C3GnT-/- mice. This was accompanied by a trend towards decreased expression levels of PSA as well as ZO-1 and occludin as compared to C3GnT+/+. Behavioural studies showed a decrease in the recognition memory of C3GnT-/- mice as compared to C3GnT+/+ mice. Combined, these results support the role of mucin O-glycosylation in the gut in potentially influencing brain function which may be facilitated by the passage of microbial metabolites through an impaired gut barrier.
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