Effect of dietary fucose on post antibiotic microbiota recovery under conditions of mucin-2 glycoprotein deficiency

Fucose, a key component of intestinal glycans, plays an important role in regulating the microbial community and creating an optimal microenvironment for host epithelial cells. In this study, the effect of dietary fucose on the restoration of intestinal microbiota in mucin-2-deficient (Muc2–/–) laboratory mice after antibiotic therapy was investigated. Wild-type mice were used as controls (WT, C57BL/6). During the experiment, animals of both genotypes were divided into four groups: mice in group 1 did not receive antibiotics (negative control), representatives of group 2 received antibiotics (14 days) and fucose (positive control for fucose), group 3 received antibiotics (14 days) and standard feed (dysbiosis model), and group 4 received only fucose (main experimental group). The results of the study showed that Muc2–/– mice had significantly lower levels of bound fucose in the intestine than the control animals (p = 0.0001), which was accompanied by an imbalance in the microbiota. Antibiotic therapy aggravated these changes, reducing the number of Bacteroides spp. (p = 0.0003) and Lactobacillus murinus (p = 0.0268), while increasing the level of opportunistic Escherichia coli (p = 0.0004). Addition of fucose to the diet resulted in selective restoration of Bacteroides spp. in Muc2–/– mice (p = 0.0015), but had no effect on the number of L. murinus. An important finding was the indirect suppression of Enterococcus spp. by stimulation of Bacteroides, indicating complex intermicrobial interactions within the gut microbiome. It was also established that fucose reduced the level of E. coli (p = 0.0149), demonstrating its protective role. In C57BL/6 mice, fucose restored the level of bound fucose (p = 0.0249), whereas this was not observed in Muc2–/– mice, highlighting the key role of mucin-2 in maintaining microbial homeostasis. The obtained data reveal complex relationships between the mucin barrier, the composition of the microbiota and its resistance to antibiotics, opening up prospects for the development of new approaches to correcting the microbiocenosis in cases of intestinal barrier disorders.

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