title: Impact of Environmental Microbes on the Composition of the Gut Microbiota of Adult BALB/c Mice.
abstract: To investigate the impact of microbes within the living environment on the gut microbiota of adults, we raised three groups of BALB/c mice from 3-4 weeks age in the same specific-pathogen-free animal room for 8 weeks. The control group lived in cages with sterilized bedding (pelletized cardboard), the probiotics group had three probiotics added to the sterilized bedding, and the intestinal microbes (IM) group had the intestinal microbes of a healthy goat added to the bedding. All other variables such as diet, age, genetic background, physiological status, original gut microbiota, and living room were controlled. Using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, we observed that the control and probiotics groups had similar diversity and richness of gut microbiota. The two groups had significantly lower diversity than the IM group. We also observed that the IM group had a specific structure of gut microbial community compared with the control and probiotics groups. However, the dominate bacteria changed slightly upon exposure to intestinal microbes, and the abundance of the non-dominate species changed significantly. In addition, exposure to intestinal microbes inhibited DNFB-induced elevation of serum IgE levels. Our results provide new evidence in support of the microflora and hygiene hypotheses.
authors: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Zhimao
authors: Z
authors: Bai
authors: College of Food Science, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Honglin
authors: H
authors: Zhang
authors: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.|Suzhou Research Institute of Southeast University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Na
authors: N
authors: Li
authors: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei, People's Republic of China.
authors: Zhiyu
authors: Z
authors: Bai
authors: College of Food Science, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Liling
authors: L
authors: Zhang
authors: College of Food Science, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Zhencheng
authors: Z
authors: Xue
authors: College of Food Science, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Haitao
authors: H
authors: Jiang
authors: Department of Child Health, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Yuan
authors: Y
authors: Song
authors: Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.|Suzhou Research Institute of Southeast University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors: Dongrui
authors: D
authors: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D004777:Environment; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome / Q000235:genetics*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D006041:Goats / Q000382:microbiology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D019936:Probiotics / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S