Identification of Muscle Strength-Related Gut Microbes through Human Fecal Microbiome Transplantation

Abstract Background Considering the effect of the gut microbiome on human physiology and aging, the gut microbiome may affect muscle strength in the same way as the host's own genes. Previous research has shown that the gut microbiome can have both positive and negative effects on muscle strength, suggesting the presence of two different types of gut microbiome. In this study, we demonstrate that the gut microbiome can contribute differently to muscle strength. Results We remodelled the original gut microbiome of mice through fecal microbiome transplant (FMT) using human feces, and compared the changes in muscle strength of the same mice before and three months after FMT. We found that FMT affected muscle strength in three different ways: positive, none, and negative. Analysis of the phylogenesis, α-diversities, and β-diversities on the gut microbiome in the three groups showed that a more diverse group of intestinal microbes was established after FMT in each of the three groups, indicating that the human gut microbiome is more diverse than that of mice. The remodelled gut microbiome by FMT in each group was also different from each other. Fold change and linear correlation analyses identified Phocaeicola barnesiae, Eisenbergiella massiliensis, and Anaeroplasma abactoclasticum in the gut microbiome as positive contributors to muscle strength, while Ileibacterium valens and Ethanoligenens harbinense were found to have negative effects. Conclusions This study not only confirms the presence of gut microbiomes that contribute differently to muscle strength, but also explains the mixed results in previous research on the association between the gut microbiome and muscle strength.