Intestinal microbial diversity of swines fed with different sources of lithium

Leandro de Souza Lopes; Juliana Soares da Silva; José Maria Rodrigues da Luz; Marliane de Cássia Soares da Silva; Helena Santiago Lima; Gabriel Cipriano Rocha; Hilário Cuquetto Mantovani; Maria Catarina Megumi Kasuya

doi:10.1007/s13205-024-03938-3

Intestinal microbial diversity of swines fed with different sources of lithium

3 Biotech. 2024 Apr;14(4):102. doi: 10.1007/s13205-024-03938-3. Epub 2024 Mar 6.

Authors

Leandro de Souza Lopes¹, Juliana Soares da Silva¹, José Maria Rodrigues da Luz¹, Marliane de Cássia Soares da Silva¹, Helena Santiago Lima¹, Gabriel Cipriano Rocha², Hilário Cuquetto Mantovani^{1

3}, Maria Catarina Megumi Kasuya¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. Peter Henry Rolfs, S/N, Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-000 Brazil.
² Department of Animal Science, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. P.H. Rolfs, S/N, Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900 Brazil.
³ Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 USA.

PMID: 38464613
PMCID: PMC10917731 (available on 2025-04-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s13205-024-03938-3

Abstract

A drug that is widely used in the treatment of psychiatric disorder is lithium (Li) salts. The people who make therapeutic use of this drug develop a series of side effects. Through metataxonomic data, this study assessed the impacts of lithium, as Li carbonate or Li-enriched mushrooms, on the microbial composition of the ileum, colon, and feces of piglets. Employing Bray-Curtis metric, no differences were observed among the treatments evaluated. Nevertheless, the alpha diversity indices showed differences in the Simpson, Shannon, and Chao-1 indices in the colon and Chao-1 in the feces in the diets with Li compared with the diets without Li. The taxa with the highest relative abundance varied among the ileum, colon, and feces, with a predominance of the phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, and Proteobacteria in diets with Li. Many groups of microorganisms that are important for the health of the host (e.g., Lactobacillus, Ruminococcaceae, Enterorhabdus, Muribaculaceae, and Coprococcus) had their relative abundance increased in animals that received diets with the recommended dose of lithium. Furthermore, there was an increase in the abundance of Prevotellaceae and Bacteroidales (in the diet with Li-enriched mushroom) and Clostridia, Ruminococcus, Burkholderia, and Bacteroidales (diets with Li carbonate) at the recommended dosages. This is the first study to show the effects of Li carbonate and Li-enriched mushrooms on the intestinal microbiota of piglets. Thus, the effects of lithium on the body may be related to its ability to change the composition of the intestinal microbiota.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-024-03938-3.

Keywords: Disorder; Dysbiosis; Metataxonomy; Organic acids; Piglets.

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