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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiomes
Sec. Nutrition, Metabolism and the Microbiome
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frmbi.2024.1380152
This article is part of the Research Topic Rodent model organisms: Therapeutic treatments and drugs interaction with the gut microbiome View all 37 articles

Effects of Oral Liquiritigenin Inoculation on Gut Microbiota and Gene Expression in Intestinal and Extraintestinal Tissues of Mice

Provisionally accepted
Zhaotaize Suo Zhaotaize Suo 1Ying Yu Ying Yu 2Fangyun Shi Fangyun Shi 3Jijing Tian Jijing Tian 3Zhihui Hao Zhihui Hao 3Jing-Ren Zhang Jing-Ren Zhang 4Jun Zou Jun Zou 5*
  • 1 High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
  • 2 College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
  • 3 College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 4 Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 5 Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The gut and its microbiota play crucial roles in maintaining health and influencing various diseases. Liquiritigenin (LQ), a natural flavonoid found in traditional Chinese medicine and often administered orally, holds potential to affect both the gut and its microbiota, that potentially mediating or influencing its biological and pharmacological effects. In this study, we aimed to explore the impact of LQ on gut microbiota and gene expression in both intestinal and extraintestinal tissues. Findings show that LQ alters gut microbiota composition, enhancing microbial correlations in the colon but causing some dysbiosis, evidenced by increased pathobionts, decreased beneficial bifidobacteria, and reduced microbiota diversity. Gene expression analysis reveals LQ upregulates mucosal immune response genes and anti-infection genes in both the intestine and lung, with histology confirming increased Paneth cells and antimicrobial peptides in the intestine. Additionally, LQ affects tissue-specific gene expression, triggering hypersensitivity genes in the colon, downregulating metabolic genes in the small intestine, and reducing cell motility and adhesion genes in the lung. These results suggest LQ's potential to modulate common mucosal immunity but also highlight 25 possible risks of gut dysbiosis and hypersensitivity, particularly in vulnerable 26 individuals. Our study, while informative about the effects of LQ on gut health, lacks 27 direct evidence on whether changes in gut microbiota and gene expression caused by 28 LQ impact inflammatory diseases or are causally linked. Future research should 29 investigate this through fecal microbiota transplantation to explore the causal 30 relationships and LQ's potential effects on immune responses and disease outcomes in 31 relevant models.

    Keywords: phytochemicals, Flavonoid, liquiritigenin, Gut Microbiota, RNA-seq 33 Analysis, Gene Expression, Dysbiosis, Mucosal Immunity 34 35

    Received: 21 Feb 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Suo, Yu, Shi, Tian, Hao, Zhang and Zou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jun Zou, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States

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