Early Influences of Microbiota on White Matter Development in Germ-Free Piglets

Abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), as well as the underlying white matter (WM) tracts, lie at the intersection of many neurodevelopmental disorders. The influence of microorganisms on brain development has recently been brought into the clinical and research spotlight as alterations in co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Frontiers in cellular neuroscience Vol. 15; p. 807170
Main Authors:	Ahmed, Sadia, Travis, Sierrah D, Díaz-Bahamonde, Francisca V, Porter, Demisha D L, Henry, Sara N, Mykins, Julia, Ravipati, Aditya, Booker, Aryn, Ju, Jing, Ding, Hanzhang, Ramesh, Ashwin K, Pickrell, Alicia M, Wang, Maosen, LaConte, Stephen, Howell, Brittany R, Yuan, Lijuan, Morton, Paul D
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 27-12-2021
Subjects:	brain Cellular Neuroscience germ-free microbiota myelin oligodendrocyte white matter germ-free microbiota myelin swine white matter oligodendrocyte brain
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), as well as the underlying white matter (WM) tracts, lie at the intersection of many neurodevelopmental disorders. The influence of microorganisms on brain development has recently been brought into the clinical and research spotlight as alterations in commensal microbiota are implicated in such disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety the gut-brain axis. In addition, gut dysbiosis is common in preterm birth patients who often display diffuse WM injury and delayed WM maturation in critical tracts including those within the PFC and corpus callosum. Microbial colonization of the gut aligns with ongoing postnatal processes of oligodendrogenesis and the peak of brain myelination in humans; however, the influence of microbiota on gyral WM development remains elusive. Here, we develop and validate a neonatal germ-free swine model to address these issues, as piglets share key similarities in WM volume, developmental trajectories, and distribution to humans. We find significant region-specific reductions, and sexually dimorphic trends, in WM volume, oligodendrogenesis, and mature oligodendrocyte numbers in germ-free piglets during a key postnatal epoch of myelination. Our findings indicate that microbiota plays a critical role in promoting WM development during early life when the brain is vulnerable to environmental insults that can result in an array of disabilities manifesting later in life.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Hiroaki Wake, Nagoya University, Japan Reviewed by: Daisuke Kato, Nagoya University, Japan; Tetsuya Sasaki, University of Tsukuba, Japan Specialty section: This article was submitted to Non-Neuronal Cells, a section of the journal Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
ISSN:	1662-5102 1662-5102
DOI:	10.3389/fncel.2021.807170