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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 12|pp 16733—16748

Gut microbiota mediates cognitive impairment in young mice after multiple neonatal exposures to sevoflurane

Meiyu Liu1,2, Shaoyong Song1, Qingcai Chen1, Jianhong Sun2, Wei Chu3, Yunzeng Zhang4, Fuhai Ji1
  • 1Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
  • 2Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China
  • 3Medical School of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
  • 4Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China
* Equal contribution
Received: January 5, 2021Accepted: May 31, 2021Published: June 28, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203193

Copyright: © 2021 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Multiple exposures to anesthesia may increase the risk of cognitive impairment in young children. However, the mechanisms underlying this neurodevelopmental disorder remain elusive. In this study, we investigated alteration of the gut microbiota after multiple neonatal exposures to the anesthetic sevoflurane and the potential role of microbiota alteration on cognitive impairment using a young mice model. Multiple neonatal sevoflurane exposures resulted in obvious cognitive impairment symptoms and altered gut microbiota composition. Fecal transplantation experiments confirmed that alteration of the microbiota was responsible for the cognitive disorders in young mice. Microbiota profiling analysis identified microbial taxa that showed consistent differential abundance before and after fecal microbiota transplantation. Several of the differentially abundant taxa are associated with memory and/or health of the host, such as species of Streptococcus, Lachnospiraceae, and Pseudoflavonifractor. The results reveal that abnormal composition of the gut microbiota is a risk factor for cognitive impairment in young mice after multiple neonatal exposures to sevoflurane and provide insight into a potential therapeutic strategy for sevoflurane-related neurotoxicity.