Gut microbiota from coronary artery disease patients contributes to vascular dysfunction in mice by regulating bile acid metabolism and immune activation

Abstract

Background

The gut microbiota was shown to play a crucial role in the development of vascular dysfunction, and the bacterial composition differed between healthy controls and coronary artery disease patients. The goal of this study was to investigate how the gut microbiota affects host metabolic homeostasis at the organism scale.

Methods

We colonized germ-free C57BL/6 J mice with faeces from healthy control donors (Con) and coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and fed both groups a high fat diet for 12 weeks. We monitored cholesterol and vascular function in the transplanted mice. We analysed bile acids profiles and gut microbiota composition. Transcriptome sequencing and flow cytometry were performed to evaluate inflammatory and immune response.

Results

CAD mice showed increased reactive oxygen species generation and intensive arterial stiffness. Microbiota profiles in recipient mice clustered according to the microbiota structure of the human donors. Clostridium symbiosum and Eggerthella colonization from CAD patients modulated the secondary bile acids pool, leading to an increase in lithocholic acid and keto-derivatives. Subsequently, bile acids imbalance in the CAD mice inhibited hepatic bile acids synthesis and resulted in elevated circulatory cholesterol. Moreover, the faecal microbiota from the CAD patients caused a significant induction of abnormal immune responses at both the transcriptome level and through the enhanced secretion of cytokines. In addition, microbes belonging to CAD promoted intestinal inflammation by contributing to lamina propria Th17/Treg imbalance and worsened gut barrier permeability.

Conclusions

In summary, our findings elucidated that the gut microbiota impacts cholesterol homeostasis by modulating bile acids. In addition, the CAD-associated bacterial community was shown to function as an important regulator of systemic inflammation and to influence arterial stiffness.