Gut microbiota and transcriptome dynamics in every-other-day fasting are associated with neuroprotection in rats with spinal cord injury

This study investigates how every-other-day fasting (EODF) affects gut bacteria and gene activity in the spinal cords of rats after spinal cord injury (SCI). They found that EODF changes the types of bacteria in the gut and alters gene expression in the spinal cord, potentially contributing to neuroprotection. The researchers used 16S rRNA sequencing to analyze gut microbiota and RNA-seq to analyze spinal cord transcriptome. They compared rats on a normal diet (AL) with those on EODF after SCI, looking at changes over 28 days. The results suggest EODF may help protect the spinal cord by changing gene expression and that gut bacteria may play a role in this process. Specific bacteria were linked to genes involved in neuroprotection.

• 1
  EODF treatment led to dynamic shifts in the abundance of gut bacteria, including increases in potentially anti-inflammatory genera like Lactobacillus and decreases in pro-inflammatory genera like Bacteroides.
• 2
  Transcriptome analysis revealed that EODF significantly altered the expression of genes associated with immune and inflammatory responses, cell differentiation, and protein modification in the spinal cord tissue after SCI.
• 3
  Specific bacterial genera were correlated with the expression of neuroprotection-related genes, suggesting a potential link between gut microbiota and neuroprotective mechanisms in EODF-treated SCI rats.