High fat diet alters gut microbiota but not spatial working memory in early middle-aged Sprague Dawley rats

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

study design

laboratory experiment

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

31141574

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1371/journal.pone.0217553

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

Authors

Deshpande NG, Saxena J, Pesaresi TG, Carrell CD, Ashby GB, Liao MK, Freeman LR

Journal

PloS one

Year

2019

As the global population ages, and rates of dementia rise, understanding lifestyle factors that play a role in the development and acceleration of cognitive decline is vital to creating therapies and recommendations to improve quality of later life. Obesity has been shown to increase risk for dementia. However, the specific mechanisms for obesity-induced cognitive decline remain unclear. One potential contributor to diet-induced cognitive changes is neuroinflammation. Furthermore, a source of diet-induced inflammation to potentially increase neuroinflammation is via gut dysbiosis. We hypothesized that a high fat diet would cause gut microbe dysbiosis, and subsequently: neuroinflammation and cognitive decline. Using 7-month old male Sprague Dawley rats, this study examined whether 8 weeks on a high fat diet could impact performance on the water radial arm maze, gut microbe diversity and abundance, and microgliosis. We found that a high fat diet altered gut microbe populations compared to a low fat, control diet. However, we did not observe any significant differences between dietary groups on maze performance (a measure of spatial working memory) or microgliosis. Our data reveal a significant change to the gut microbiome without subsequent effects to neuroinflammation (as measured by microglia characterization and counts in the cortex, hippocampus, and hypothalamus) or cognitive performance under the parameters of our study. However, future studies that explore duration of the diet, composition of the diet, age of animal model, and strain of animal model, must be explored.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled (if applicable): Rattus norvegicus

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: diet Dietary,Diets,diet

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: low fat diet
Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: high fat diet
Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: High fat diet rats were fed (20% protein, 35% carbohydrate, 45% fat by calories). Controls or low fat diet were fed (20% protein, 70% carbohydrate, 10% fat by calories) for eight weeks.
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 6
Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 6

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Roche454

Statistical Analysis

Statistical test: ANOVA

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05
MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Lora Kasselman

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Source: Table 1

Description: Mean relative abundances for gut genera and p-value for differences between high-fat and control animals are listed. Class and phylum are indicated as well

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in high fat diet

NCBI	Links
Lactococcus
Granulicatella
Anaerobacterium
Anaerovorax ⚠
Clostridium
Coprococcus
Eubacterium
Faecalibacterium
Flavonifractor
Oscillospira
Papillibacter
Pseudoflavonifractor ⚠
Sporobacter
Tyzzerella
Thomasclavelia
Holdemania ⚠
Rothia
Adlercreutzia
Collinsella

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Signature 2

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Lora Kasselman

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Source: Table 1

Description: Mean relative abundances for gut genera and p-value for differences between high-fat and control animals are listed. Class and phylum are indicated as well

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in high fat diet

NCBI	Links
Citrobacter
Barnesiella
Bacteroides
Robinsoniella ⚠

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks