title: Fish oil enhances recovery of intestinal microbiota and epithelial integrity in chronic rejection of intestinal transplant.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The intestinal chronic rejection (CR) is the major limitation to long-term survival of transplanted organs. This study aimed to investigate the interaction between intestinal microbiota and epithelial integrity in chronic rejection of intestinal transplantation, and to find out whether fish oil enhances recovery of intestinal microbiota and epithelial integrity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The luminal and mucosal microbiota composition of CR rats were characterized by DGGE analysis at 190 days after intestinal transplant. The specific bacterial species were determined by sequence analysis. Furthermore, changes in the localization of intestinal TJ proteins were examined by immunofluorescent staining. PCR-DGGE analysis revealed that gut microbiota in CR rats had a shift towards Escherichia coli, Bacteroides spp and Clostridium spp and a decrease in the abundance of Lactobacillales bacteria in the intestines. Fish oil supplementation could enhance the recovery of gut microbiota, showing a significant decrease of gut bacterial proportions of E. coli and Bacteroides spp and an increase of Lactobacillales spp. In addition, CR rats showed pronounced alteration of tight junction, depicted by marked changes in epithelial cell ultrastructure and redistribution of occuldin and claudins as well as disruption in TJ barrier function. Fish oil administration ameliorated disruption of epithelial integrity in CR, which was associated with an improvement of the mucosal structure leading to improved tight junctions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study have presented novel evidence that fish oil is involved in the maintenance of epithelial TJ integrity and recovery of gut microbiota, which may have therapeutic potential against CR in intestinal transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Qiurong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chenyang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yanmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jieshou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006084:Graft Rejection; D007422:Intestines / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000637:transplantation; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D005395:Fish Oils; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S