TY - JOUR T1 - Effects of gut microbiota perturbation on Th1- and Th2-biased mice following treatment with Vancomycin JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/516898 SP - 516898 AU - Pratikshya Ray AU - Palok Aich Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/08/12/516898.abstract N2 - Use and abuse of antibiotics not only cause microbial resistance but also influence abundance and diversity of microbiota. Gut, in mammals, harbour a large number of diverse microbiota. Gut microbiota are a) the largest reservoir of beneficial microbes in mammals and b) play a major role in maintaining health and homeostasis. To understand how do gut microbiota maintain health, one major tool is to perturb the microbial population. Antibiotics are important and potent perturbing agents for microbiota to study the role of gut microbes in maintaining various host physiology. We selected vancomycin, used mainly for the treatment of intestinal infection due to Clostridium difficile, for further studies to establish the effects on host immunity and metabolism in Th2-(BALB/c) and Th1- (C57BL/6) biased mice models. We found that during early days (until day 4) following treatment with vancomycin the abundance of phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroides are reduced in contrast to significant increase in the phylum Proteobacteria in the gut. These changes in microbial profile could be correlated with the observed increase in a) inflammation, b) permeability of gut, and c) cecal indices opposed to a decrease in the rate of a) glucose tolerance, and b) change in Short Chain Fatty Acid (SCFA) metabolic profile of the host. In addition, we observed significant increase in the phylum Verrucomicrobia for the genus Akkermansia following treatment with vancomycin for 5 days and more. Increased Akkermansia may be suggestive of the restoration of gut environment as is observed with a) decreased inflammation and b) increased rate of glucose tolerance. The effects of Akkermansia was more pronounced in C57BL/6 than BALB/c. ER -