Fecal microbiota transplantation reverses antibiotic and chemotherapy-induced gut dysbiosis in mice

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is now widely used to treat recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, but has been less studied as a means to restore microbiome diversity and composition following antibiotic or chemotherapy treatments. The purpose of our study was to assess the efficacy of FMT to reverse antibiotic- and chemotherapy-induced gut dysbiosis in a mouse model. C57BL/6J mice were treated with ampicillin for 1 week and/or received a single intraperitoneal injection of 5-Fluorouracil. Fresh stool was collected and analyzed using shotgun metagenomics and the Illumina sequencing platform. Ampicillin caused a significant and immediate decrease in bacterial species richness and diversity that persisted for one week. In mice that received FMT, disruption of the intestinal microbiota was reversed immediately. Antibiotic and chemotherapy administration caused significant alteration in species distribution, including a decrease in the relative proportions of Clostridium scindens and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and an increase in known pathogenic species. In mice receiving FMT, we observed a significant increase in species known to exhibit anti-inflammatory properties. Moreover, chemotherapy led to a critical decrease in key ‘health-promoting’ species and to an altered functional profile, especially when chemotherapy was administered in tandem with antibiotics, and that FMT can ameliorate these effects.