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Probiotic supplements alleviate gestational diabetes mellitus by restoring the diversity of gut microbiota: a study based on 16S rRNA sequencing

  • Microbial Ecology and Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Probiotics effectively prevent and improve metabolic diseases such as diabetes by regulating the intestinal microenvironment and gut microbiota. However, the effects of probiotics in gestational diabetes mellitus are not clear. Here, we showed that probiotic supplements significantly improved fasting blood glucose in a gestational diabetes mellitus rat model. To further understand the mechanisms of probiotics in gestational diabetes mellitus, the gut microbiota were analyzed via 16S rRNA sequencing. We found that compared with the normal pregnant group, the gestational diabetes mellitus rats had decreased diversity of gut microbiota. Moreover, probiotic supplementation restored the diversity of the gut microbiota in gestational diabetes mellitus rats, and the gut microbiota structure tended to be similar to that of normal pregnant rats. In particular, compared with gestational diabetes mellitus rats, the abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria was higher after probiotic supplementation. Furthermore, activating carbohydrate metabolism and membrane transport pathways may be involved in the potential mechanisms by which probiotic supplements alleviate gestational diabetes mellitus. Overall, our results suggested that probiotic supplementation might be a novel approach to restore the gut microbiota of gestational diabetes mellitus rats and provided an experimental evidence for the use of probiotic supplements to treat gestational diabetes mellitus.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by by a grant from Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital (YCXMH 20-08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, 350000, P. R. China

    Qing-Xiang Zheng, Xiu-Min Jiang & Hai-Wei Wang

  2. Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, 350122, P. R. China

    Li Ge, Yu-Ting Lai, Xin-Yong Jiang, Fan Chen & Ping-Ping Huang

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  1. Qing-Xiang Zheng
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  2. Xiu-Min Jiang
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  3. Hai-Wei Wang
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  4. Li Ge
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  7. Fan Chen
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Correspondence to Xiu-Min Jiang.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Statement

All animal procedures were approved and conducted under the guidance of the animal experiment center at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Animal ethics approval number was FJTCM IACUC 2020020.

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Zheng, QX., Jiang, XM., Wang, HW. et al. Probiotic supplements alleviate gestational diabetes mellitus by restoring the diversity of gut microbiota: a study based on 16S rRNA sequencing. J Microbiol. 59, 827–839 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-021-1094-8

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