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Transforming the gut microbiota has turned into the most intriguing target for interventions in multiple gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal disorders. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a therapeutic tool that administers feces collected from healthy donors into patients to help replenish the gut microbial balance. Considering the random donor selection, to maintain the optimal microbial ecosystem, post-FMT is critical for therapy outcomes but challenging. Aiming to study the interventions of different diets on recipients' gut microbiota post-FMT that originated from donors with different diets, we performed FMT from domestic vs. wild pigs that are living on low-fiber vs. high-fiber diets into the pseudo-GF mouse, followed with fiber-free (FF) or fiber-rich (FR) diets post-FMT. Different patterns of gut microbiota and metabolites were observed when mice FMT from different donors were paired with different dietary fiber contents. Enrichment of bacteria, including Akkermansia and Parabacteroides , together with alteration of metabolites, including palmitic acid, stearic acid, and nicotinic acid, was noted to improve crypt length and mucus layer in the gut in mice FMT from wild pigs fed an FR diet. The results provide novel insight into the different responses of reconstructed gut microbiota by FMT to dietary fiber. Our study highlighted the importance of post-FMT precise dietary interventions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhong, Cao, Ma, Zhang, Liu and Wang.)

Both fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and dietary fiber intervention were verified as effective ways to manipulate the gut microbiota, whereas little is known about the influence of the combined methods on gut microbiota. Here, we constructed "non-industrialized" and "industrialized" gut microbiota models to investigate the donor effect of FMT and diet effect in shaping the gut microbiota. Mice were transplanted fecal microbiota from domestic pig and received a diet with low-fiber (D) or high-fiber (DF), whereas the other two groups were transplanted fecal microbiota from wild pig and then received a diet with low-fiber (W) or high-fiber (WF), respectively. Gut microbiota of WF mice showed a lower Shannon and Simpson index ( P < 0.05), whereas gut microbiota of W mice showed no significant difference than that of D and DF mice. Random forest models revealed the major differential bacteria genera between four groups, including Anaeroplasma or unclassified&#95;o&#95; Desulfovibrionales , which were influenced by FMT or diet intervention, respectively. Besides, we found a lower out-of-bag rate in the random forest model constructed for dietary fiber (0.086) than that for FMT (0.114). Linear discriminant analysis effective size demonstrated that FMT combined with dietary fiber altered specific gut microbiota, including Alistipes , Clostridium XIVa, Clostridium XI, and Akkermansia , in D, DF, W, and WF mice, respectively. Our results revealed that FMT from different donors coupled with dietary fiber intervention could lead to different patterns of gut microbiota composition, and dietary fiber might play a more critical role in shaping gut microbiota than FMT donor. Strategies based on dietary fiber can influence the effectiveness of FMT in the recipient., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Zhong, Cao, Deng, Ma, Liu and Wang.)

Context: Schisandrae chinensis fructus, the dried ripe fruit of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. (Magnoliaceae) has been used for thousands of years as a traditional Chinese herb, which can attenuate and prevent the development of cardiovascular events., Objective: To evaluate the effects of the ethanol extracts from Schisandrae chinensis fructus fruit (EESC) on experimental atherosclerosis (AS) in rats., Materials and Methods: Treatment with EESC (0.35, 0.7, 1.4 g/kg/d, i.g.) and simvastatin (4 mg/kg/d, i.g.) on AS rats for 3 weeks. Sprague-Dawley rats on normal chow and under water treatment were used as control. The content of schisandrin, schisandrin A and schisandrin B in EESC was detected by HPLC. Aortic pathology changes, serum biochemical indices and nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf-2) and heame oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expressions were measured., Results: Schisandrin, schisandrin A and schisandrin B contents were 291.8, 81.46 and 279.1 mg/g of dry weight, respectively. EESC significantly reduced the aortic plaque area (76.5, 90.5 and 73.9% reduction), regulated the levels of serum lipid (p < 0.05), enhanced the antioxidant enzyme activities (p < 0.01), reduced the malondialdehyde levels (72.5, 69.3, 67.3%), and up-regulated the Nrf-2 and HO-1 expression (p < 0.05). Furthermore, EESC reduced the levels of oxidized-LDL and endothelin-1 and thromboxane B2 but increased that of 6-keto prostaglandin F1α (p < 0.05). Acute toxicity was calculated on mice to be LD 50  > 20 g/kg., Conclusions: EESC positively affects the treatment of AS in vivo and the findings will provide a reliable theoretical basis for developing novel therapeutics.

Valeriana jatamansi Jones, a plant with heart-shaped leaves in the Valeriana genus of Valerianaceae, is widely used in Chinese folk medicine. Iridoid is an important constituent of V. jatamansi that contributes to the pharmacological efficacy of the herb. This study aims to investigate the regulation of lipid metabolism and its mechanism of the iridoids rich fraction in V. jatamansi (IRFV). A high fat diet was used to establish the hyperlipidemia rat model, with 2mg/kg/d of simvastatin as a positive control, fed with 7.5, 15, and 30mg/kg/d of IRFV for 20days to investigate the lipid regulation activity and mechanism of IRFV. Body weight, liver index, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in both serum and liver, as well as total bile acid (TBA), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in serum were measured. The lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic lipase (HL) activities and the apoprotein A5 (ApoA5), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPAR-α), sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBP-1c), and liver X receptor α (LXR-α) protein expressions were observed. Liver pathology was described through hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Compared with the model group, three different IRFV dosages can slow down the weight gain of rats, reduce the contents of TG, and increase the contents of HDL-C in serum. Low IRFV dosage can significantly reduce the AST and ALT contents in serum, liver index, and the TG contents in liver, enhance LPL activity. Medium IRFV dosage can significantly decrease the TG and LDL-C contents in liver. High IRFV dosage can significantly reduce LDL-C, TBA, AST, and ALT contents in serum, and enhance HL activity. Three different IRFV dosages can significantly increase the ApoA5 and PPAR-α protein expression and decrease the SREBP-1c protein expression. Furthermore, the LXR-α protein expression decreased in low- and high-dose groups. Liver tissue pathological observation showed that IRFV can improve cell degeneration to a certain extent. These results strongly suggest that IRFV play significant roles in regulating lipid metabolism, the mechanism may be related to the increased ApoA5 protein expression., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)