Ecotoxicology inside the gut: impact of heavy metals on the mouse microbiome
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The gut microbiota is critical for intestinal homeostasis. Recent studies have revealed the links between different types of dysbiosis and diseases inside and outside the intestine. Environmental exposure to pollutants (such as heavy metals) can also impair various physiological functions for good health. Here, we studied the impact of up to 8 weeks of oral lead and cadmium ingestion on the composition of the murine intestinal microbiome. RESULTS: Pyrosequencing of 16S RNA sequences revealed minor but specific changes in bacterial commensal communities (at both family and genus levels) following oral exposure to the heavy metals, with notably low numbers of Lachnospiraceae and high numbers levels of Lactobacillaceae and Erysipelotrichaceacae (mainly due to changes in Turicibacter spp), relative to control animals. CONCLUSIONS: Non-absorbed heavy metals have a direct impact on the gut microbiota. In turn, this may impact the alimentary tract and overall gut homeostasis. Our results may enable more accurate assessment of the risk of intestinal disease associated with heavy metal ingestion.
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Administration of heavy metals to animals dramatically perturbed gut microbiota and metabolomic profile, increasing relative levels of Lactobacillaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae while reducing relative levels of Lachnospiraceae.
“Administration of heavy metals to animals dramatically perturbed their gut microbiota and metabolomic profile, increasing relative levels of Lactobacillaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae while reducing relative levels of Lachnospiraceae (Breton et al., 2013).”
From The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis (2019) · cites this paper as Breton et al., 2013
The Results and discussion report that mice given oral cadmium or lead had higher relative abundances of Lactobacillaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae and lower relative abundance of Lachnospiraceae. But the paper describes the microbiota changes as minor or small, not dramatic, and our copy does not report a perturbed metabolomic profile. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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- Authors
- Breton, J., Massart, S., Vandamme, P., De Brandt, E., Pot, B., & Foligné, B.
- Affiliations
- Institut Pasteur de Lille (FR)
- DNAVision (Belgium) (BE)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Foligné, Benoît
- Venue
- BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Published
- 2013-12
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 62-62
- ISSN
- 2050-6511 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3874687
- OpenAlex
- W2152562424
- Cited by
- 213
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 4.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORBi (University of Liège) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- VUBIR (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (submittedVersion)
- BMC Pharmacology
- Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotoxicology and immune responses
- Keywords
- gut microbiota, heavy metals, lead, cadmium, oral exposure, dysbiosis, Lachnospiraceae, Lactobacillaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Turicibacter, bacterial community composition, intestinal homeostasis, ecotoxicology
- MeSH terms
- Heavy Metal Poisoning, Animals, Cadmium, Cecum, Feces, Female, Lactobacillaceae, Lead, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Poisoning, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Mice, Ecotoxicology, Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis, Microbiota
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