In recent decades, the gut microbiota (GM) has been demonstrated influential in diseases of immunological and inflammatory origin such as asthma, allergy, arthritis and diabetes. This indicates a possibility to affect disease development by changing the GM composition. Previously our group has demonstrated a possibility to affect GM composition by inoculation in germfree mice. The aim of this study was to investigate, whether it was also possible to change the GM of conventional mice and secondly if this change would affect glucose tolerance.

64 five week old C57BL/6NTac mice (half males, half females) were given oral ampicillin for three weeks to eliminate their GM. At the age of eight weeks, the mice were then split in four groups receiving an oral suspension of GM from a BALB/c mouse, a DBA mouse, a B6-Lepob mouse or PBS as control. GM composition was analyzed prior to antibiotic treatment (the original GM of the mice), after three weeks of ampicillin treatment (to ensure the GM was eliminated) and five weeks after inoculation. A test for glucose tolerance and HbA1c% was performed prior to inoculation and after five weeks of inoculation to investigate if changing the GM influenced glucose tolerance.

The results are still preliminary but demonstrate no significant difference in GM composition five weeks after inoculation, at which time the mice did not cluster according to type of GM received. These results indicate that it was not possible to completely change the GM of eight week old mice. Also, no significant differences were demonstrated in the clinical parameters of glucose tolerance at any time, which is expected due to lack of difference in GM composition. The final analysis of GM composition is in progress, and will demonstrate whether the mice clustered according to inoculations at any time prior to five weeks post inoculations.