Tributyrin alleviates gut microbiota dysbiosis to repair intestinal damage in antibiotic-treated mice

Abstract

Tributyrin (TB) is a butyric acid precursor and has a key role in anti-inflammatory and intestinal barrier repair effects by slowly releasing butyric acid. However, its roles in gut microbiota disorder caused by antibiotics remain unclear. Herein, we established an intestinal microbiota disorder model using ceftriaxone sodium via gavage to investigate the effects of different TB doses for restoring gut microbiota and intestinal injury. First, we divided C57BL/6 male mice into two groups: control (NC, n = 8) and experimental (ABx, n = 24) groups, receiving gavage with 0.2 mL normal saline and 400 mg/mL ceftriaxone sodium solution for 7 d (twice a day and the intermediate interval was 6 h), respectively. Then, mice in the ABx group were randomly split into three groups: model (M, 0.2 mL normal saline), low TB group (TL, 0.3 g/kg BW), and high TB group (TH, 3 g/kg BW) for 11 d. We found that TB supplementation alleviated antibiotics-induced weight loss, diarrhea, and intestinal tissue damage. The 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed that TB intervention increased the α diversity of intestinal flora, increased potential short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)-producing bacteria (such as Muribaculaceae and Bifidobacterium), and inhibited the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria (such as Bacteroidetes and Enterococcus) compared to the M group. TB supplementation reversed the reduction in SCFAs production in antibiotic-treated mice. Additionally, TB downregulated the levels of serum LPS and zonulin, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β and NLRP3 inflammasome-related factors in intestinal tissue and upregulated tight junction proteins (such as ZO-1 and Occludin) and MUC2. Overall, the adjustment ability of low-dose TB to the above indexes was stronger than high-dose TB. In conclusion, TB can restore the dysbiosis of gut microbiota, increase SCFAs, suppress inflammation, and ameliorate antibiotic-induced intestinal damage, indicating that TB might be a potential gut microbiota modulator.