Short communication: Gut microbial colonization of the mouse colon using faecal transfer was equally effective when comparing rectal inoculation and oral inoculation based on 16S rRNA sequencing.

In the present study we hypothesized that a higher degree of gut microbiota (GM) transfer and colonization could be reached by rectal inoculation compared to oral inoculation, which is commonly used in mouse studies for GM transfer. We treated C57BL/6NTac Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) mice with antibiotics and subsequently we inoculated these with GM from donor mice of the same strain by either the oral or the rectal inoculation method. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the colon microbiota showed no difference in microbial community on account of inoculation method as determined by unweighted UniFrac distance metrics in C57BL/6NTac SPF mice. In addition, qPCR analysis on colon tissue revealed no difference in mRNA expression between the inoculation methods. Next, the SPF mice were compared to germ-free (GF)-mice to identify differences in inoculation efficacy. Whether the mice were antibiotic treated SPF or GF clearly influenced GM determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing where the SPF mice experienced up-regulation of S24-7 (p = .0001) and a decrease in Rikenellaceae (p = .016) compared to GF mice. qPCR analysis on colon tissue revealed up-regulation in mRNA gene expression of Il6, Il10, Reg3g and transcription factor RORγt (Rorc) in GF mice compared to SPF mice on a significant level (p < .05). This gene expression profile is consistent with post colonization development of the intestinal barrier in GF mice.