Structural features of intestinal flora in preterm rats with cognitive impairment: an analysis based on high-thorough sequencing / 中国当代儿科杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE@#To study the structural features of intestinal flora in preterm rats with cognitive impairment and the association of the change in intestinal flora with cognitive impairment in preterm rats.@*METHODS@#Sprague-Dawley rats at 16-17 days of gestation were intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharide for two consecutive days to establish a model of cognitive impairment, and the rats treated with intraperitoneally injected phosphate-buffered saline were established as the control group. Cesarean section was performed on day 21 of gestation, and preterm rats were randomly assigned to healthy maternal rats for feeding. The place navigation test in the Morris water maze was used to evaluate cognition on day 30 after birth. According to the result, the preterm rats were divided into cognitive impairment group with 21 rats and normal control group with 10 rats. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to observe pathological changes of the hippocampus, and fecal samples were collected for 16S rRNA sequencing and analysis. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed for intestinal flora.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the normal control group, the cognitive impairment group showed degeneration and necrosis of a large number of neurons in the hippocampus. Compared with the normal control group, the cognitive impairment group had significant reductions in the abundance and diversity of intestinal flora (P<0.05), with a significant increase in the abundance of Proteobacteria at the phylum level (P<0.05), as well as significant reductions in the abundance of Prevotella and Lactobacillus and significant increases in the abundance of Staphylococcaceae and Oligella at the order, family, and genus levels (P<0.05). PCA showed a significant difference in the composition of intestinal flora between the two groups.@*CONCLUSIONS@#There is a significant change in the structure of intestinal flora in preterm rats with cognitive impairment, which provides a basis for the treatment and intervention of microecological changes due to cognitive impairment after preterm birth.