Protective effect of methionine on the intestinal oxidative stress and microbiota change induced by nickel

Nickel is a common heavy metal pollutant in industrial areas and can cause oxidative damage to human and animal organs. As an essential amino acid with antioxidant function, methionine (Met) may protect the body from the oxidative stress induce by nickel, however, there is not enough research to study in this aspect. The study aims at investigating the effect of Met on the nickel-induced intestinal oxidative stress and further detected the gut microbiota changes. Mice were gavaged with quantitative NiCl2 (1.6 mg/ml, 0.25 ml) and fed with different doses of methionine in each group. The contents of intestinal oxidation product and antioxidant enzymes were determined by different biochemical quantitative methods, and the data showed that NiCl2 increased the content of intestinal oxidation product (MDA), and the antioxidant enzymes (GSH-Px, GR, SOD and CAT) were decreased. But this situation was alleviated in the group fed with additional methionine solution (0.5 mg/ml). In addition, we detected changes in the gut microbiota using high-throughput sequencing, the results showed that the structure of intestinal flora was disturbed by NiCl2, but methionine restored the germs with antioxidant capacity. Based on the results, we speculate that methionine can alleviate the impact of NiCl2 on the intestinal by enhancing the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the number of gut bacteria with anti-oxidation, suggesting that methionine as a nutritional additive may have the potential to treat nickel poisoning.