Engraftment of aging-related human gut microbiota and the effect of a seven-species consortium in a pre-clinical model

Human aging is characterized by gut microbiome alteration and differential loss of gut commensal species associated with the onset of frailty. The administration of cultured commensal strains to replenish lost taxa could potentially promote healthy aging. To investigate the interaction of whole microbiomes and administered strains, we transplanted gut microbiota from a frail or healthy elderly subject into germ-free mice. We supplemented the frail-donor recipient group with a defined consortium of taxa (the "S7") that we identified by analyzing healthy aging subjects in our previous studies and whose abundance correlated with health-promoting dietary intervention. Inoculation with a frail or a healthy donor microbiome resulted in differential microbiota compositions in murine recipients 5 weeks post-transplantation. Fecal acetate levels were significantly higher in healthy donor recipient mice than in frail donor recipient mice after 4 weeks. However, the frailty-related phenotype was not replicated in recipient mice with single-dose microbiota transplantation from a healthy and a frail donor. Five S7 species colonized successfully in germ-free mice, with a relatively high abundance of Barnesiella intestinihominis and Eubacterium rectale. The engraftment of five S7 species in germ-free mice increased fecal acetate levels and reduced colon permeability and plasma TNF-alpha concentration. Supplementation with the S7 in frail-microbiota recipient mice did not increase alpha-diversity but significantly increased the abundance of Barnesiella intestinihominis. S7 supplementation showed the potential for improving spatial reference memory in frail-microbiota recipient mice. Collectively, these data highlight the challenge of elderly microbiota engraftment in the germ-free mouse model but show promise for modulating the gut microbiome of frail elderly subjects by administering an artificial gut microbe consortium associated with healthy aging.