AUTHOR=Zheng Cihua , Zhong Yuchun , Xie Jian , Wang Zhuoya , Zhang Wenming , Pi Yiming , Zhang Wenjun , Liu Li , Luo Jun , Xu Wei TITLE=Bacteroides acidifaciens and its derived extracellular vesicles improve DSS-induced colitis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1304232 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2023.1304232 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=Probiotic therapy" to regulate gut microbiota and intervene in intestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has become a research hotspot. Bacteroides acidifaciens, as a new generation of probiotics, has shown beneficial effects on various diseases. In this study, we utilized a mouse colitis model induced by DSS to investigate how B. acidifaciens positively affects IBD. First, we confirmed that B. acidifaciens has a protective effect on colitis, including alleviating the colitis phenotype, reducing inflammatory response, and improving intestinal barrier function, accom-panied by an increase in the relative abundance of B. acidifaciens and Ruminococcus callidus but a decrease in the relative abundance of Bacteroides fragilis. Further fecal bacterial transplantation or fecal filtrate transplantation confirmed the protective effect of eosinophil-regulated gut microbiota and metabolites on DSS-induced colitis. Finally, we validated that extracellular vesicles (EVs) de-rived from B. acidifaciens contain rich functional proteins that can contribute to the relief of colitis.