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Vitamin D supplementation results in higher numbers of Clostridium coccoides in the feces of female but not male mice with intestinal inflammation
Author(s) -
Glenn Andrea J.,
Fielding Kristina A.,
Chen Jianmin C.,
Comelli Elena M.,
Ward Wendy E.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.830.1
Subject(s) - feces , inflammation , butyrate , vitamin d and neurology , vitamin , biology , gut flora , microbiome , clostridium , clostridia , bacteroides , medicine , physiology , immunology , endocrinology , microbiology and biotechnology , food science , bacteria , bioinformatics , genetics , fermentation
Vitamin D may have immunomodulatory effects in the intestine and potential to target the gut microbiota. Our objective was to determine if exposure to supplemental levels of vitamin D mitigates intestinal inflammation in interkeukin‐10 knockout (IL‐10 KO) mice. Mice were randomized to a diet containing 25 IU (low levels) or 5000 IU (supplemental levels) of vitamin D/kg of diet in utero until necropsy at 3 months of age when colonic and fecal samples were collected. Colon inflammation severity and IL‐8 levels (males only) were assessed by histological analysis and ELISA, respectively, and fecal microbiota composition was determined by qPCR. Vitamin D had no effect on IL‐8 levels in males, or body weight and inflammation severity in either gender. Vitamin D had no effect on microbiota composition in males, but females in the supplemental group had higher (p<0.05) counts of Clostridium coccoides than females in the low group. All other bacteria measured were unaffected. Moreover, female mice had lower (p<0.05) colonic inflammation scores and more (p<0.05) C. coccoides than males. Clostridia are major butyrate producers and promote Treg cell activity in the colon. Therefore, vitamin D may favourably modulate microbiota composition without attenuating inflammation in female IL‐10 KO mice. Funding sources: Dairy Farmers of Canada, NSERC and Ontario Graduate Scholarship