Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Environmental stressors, including spaceflight and altered gravity, can negatively affect the symbiotic relationship between the gut microbiome and host health. Dietary prebiotics, which alter components of the gut microbiome, show promise as an effective way to mitigate the negative impacts of stressor exposure. It remains unknown, however, if the stress-protective effects of consuming dietary prebiotics will extend to chronic altered-gravity exposure. METHODS: Forty female C57BL/6 mice consumed either a control diet or a prebiotic diet containing galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and polydextrose (PDX) for 4 weeks, after which half of the mice were exposed to 3 times the gravitational force of Earth (3g) for an additional 4 weeks. Fecal microbiome samples were collected weekly for 8 weeks, sequenced, and analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Terminal physiological endpoints, including immune and red blood cell characteristics, were collected at the end of the study. RESULTS: The results demonstrate that dietary prebiotic consumption altered the gut microbial community structure through changes to β-diversity and multiple genera across time. In addition, consuming dietary prebiotics reduced the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and increased red blood cell distribution width (RDW-CV). Importantly, the prebiotic diet prevented the impacts of altered-gravity on β-diversity and the bloom of problematic genera, such as Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 and Turicibacter. Furthermore, several prebiotic diet-induced genera-level changes were significantly associated with several host physiological changes induced by 3g exposure. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that the stress-protective potential of consuming dietary prebiotics extends to environmental stressors such as altered gravity, and, potentially, spaceflight.