The development of a cecum-cannulated gnotobiotic piglet model to study the human gut microbiota

Research conducted over the past decade using high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies have provided valuable insights into the importance of the human gut microbiota in host health and disease. Most of these studies, however, have been associative and causality of the gut microbiota in human hea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of animal science 2016-10, Vol.94, p.211-212
Main Authors: Aluthge, N D, Tom, W, Burkey, T E, Hostetler, D E, Heath, K D, Kreikemeier, C, Fernando, S C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal models
Animal sciences
Animals
Bacteria
Body mass index
Body size
Cannulae
Cannulation
Cecum
Cesarean section
Community composition
Community structure
Composition
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Diet
DNA
DNA sequencing
Domestic animals
Gene expression
Germfree
Gnotobiotic
High fat diet
Hogs
Immunology
Intestinal microflora
Low fat diet
Microbial activity
Microbiota
Microorganisms
Nucleotide sequence
Nutrient deficiency
Surgery
Weaning
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Summary:Research conducted over the past decade using high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies have provided valuable insights into the importance of the human gut microbiota in host health and disease. Most of these studies, however, have been associative and causality of the gut microbiota in human health-associated conditions has been difficult to demonstrate due to the lack of a suitable animal model which can faithfully recapitulate the interactions between the human host and the gut microbiota. The domestic pig (Sus scrofa) has been used as a clinically relevant model to study various aspects of human disease and shares a high degree of anatomical, physiological, and immunological similarities with humans, thus being a potentially valuable model for human gut microbiota studies. This study was conducted with the objective of establishing human gut microbial communities in gnotobiotic piglets and to investigate the potential of using cecum cannulation as a means of obtaining microbial community samples for time series and microbial gene expression studies. Six germ-free piglets derived using cesarean section were transferred into isolator bubbles and at 7 d of age, 3 piglets were inoculated with fecal bacteria from high body mass index (BMI > 30) human donors and the remaining 3 animals were inoculated with fecal bacteria from low BMI (BMI < 25) donors. After weaning, the piglets with the high BMI microbiota were provided a high-fat (HF) diet while the piglets with the low BMI microbiota were fed a low-fat (LF) diet. At wk 7, the high BMI microbiota piglets were cecum-cannulated and the low BMI microbiota piglets were similarly cecum-cannulated at wk 8. A cecal sample was collected from each animal immediately before surgery for use as a control for comparing cecal bacterial communities. Cecal samples were collected via the cannulae from all animals at weekly intervals until wk 10 (when the animals were euthanized). The cecal samples were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeqTM DNA sequencing platform to characterize the bacterial community composition. Comparison of the cecal bacterial communities of the cannulated piglets before surgery and at later time points revealed similar composition (PERMANOVA, p = 0.105), indicating no negative impact of cannulation on cecal bacterial community structure. BMI-Diet type had a significant impact on structuring cecal bacterial communities (PERMANOVA, p < 0.001). These results point to the potential use of cecum-cannula
ISSN:0021-8812
1525-3163