Zeolite‐containing mixture alleviates microbial dysbiosis in dextran sodium sulfate‐induced colitis in mice

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a multifactorial immunomodulatory disorder. In relative nosogenesis, gut microbiota has been the focus of research on IBD. In our previous study, we demonstrated the ameliorating effect of zeolite-containing mixture (Hydryeast^®, HY) on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis, through transcriptomics and proteomics. In the present study, we performed further investigation from the perspective of metagenomics using the gut microbiota. C57BL6 mice were provided an AIN-93G basal diet or a 0.8% HY-containing diet, and sterilized tap water for 11 days. Thereafter, colitis was induced by providing 1.5% (w/v) DSS-containing water for 9 days. DNA was extracted from the cecal contents and pooled into libraries in a single Illumina MiSeq run. The resulting sequences were analyzed using Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology (QIIME) software. According to the alterations in the relative abundance of certain bacteria, and the related gene and protein expressions, HY supplementation could improve the gut microbiota composition, ameliorate the degree of inflammation, inhibit the colonic mucosal microbial growth, and, to some extent, promote energy metabolism in the colon compared with the DSS treatment. Thus, we believe that HY may be a candidate to prevent and treat IBD.