Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Alleviates Myocardial Damage in Myocarditis by Restoring the Microbiota Composition

Publication date: Available online 30 November 2018Source: Pharmacological ResearchAuthor(s): Xiao-Fan Hu, Wen-Yong Zhang, Qiang Wen, Wei-Jun Chen, Zhi-Min Wang, Jian Chen, Feng Zhu, Kun Liu, Long-Xian Cheng, Jun Yang, Yan-Wen ShuAbstractMyocarditis can be caused by several infectious and noninfectious causes. Treatment for myocarditis is still a difficult task in clinical practice. The gut microbiota is related to cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and hypertension. However, little is known about the role of the gut microbiota in myocarditis. In our study, we tested the hypothesis that gut dysbiosis is associated with myocarditis. We focused on whether fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can be used as an effective treatment for myocarditis. We used an experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) mouse model. Fecal samples were isolated from the control and EAM groups for bacterial genome analysis. We observed an increase in microbial richness and diversity in the myocarditis mice. These changes were accompanied by an increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio. We also evaluated the efficacy of FMT for the treatment of myocarditis. EAM mouse guts were repopulated with fecal contents from an untreated male mouse donor. We found that myocardial injury was improved by diminished inflammatory infiltration, showing that IFN-γ gene expression in the heart tissue and CD4+IFN-γ+ cells in the spleen were decreased after FMT in EAM mice. We also found that FMT was able to...
Source: Pharmacological Research - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research