Dietary fiber may benefit chondrocyte activity maintenance

Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2024 May 13:14:1401963. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1401963. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The understanding of the link between the gut-bone axis is growing yearly, but the mechanisms involved are not yet clear. Our study analyzed the role of Sestrin2 (SESN2)pathway in the gut-bone axis. We established an osteoarthritis (OA) model in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats using the anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) procedure, followed by a dietary intervention with varying levels of dietary fiber content for 8 weeks. By 16S rRNA sequencing of the gut microbiota, we found that high dietary fiber (HDF) intake could significantly increase the Bacillota-dominant gut microbiota. Meanwhile, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and histological analysis showed that intervention with HDF could reduce the degree of bone and joint lesions and inflammation. We hypothesize that HDF increased the dominant flora of Bacillota, up-regulated the expression of SESN2 in knee joint, and reduced gut permeability, thereby reducing systemic inflammatory response and the degree of bone and joint lesions. Therefore, the present study confirms that changes in gut microbiota induced by increased dietary fiber intake delayed the onset of OA by promoting up-regulation of SESN2 expression at the knee joint to maintain chondrocyte activity and reduce synovial inflammation.

Keywords: SCFAs; SESN2; fiber dietary; gut microbiota; osteoarthritis.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Chondrocytes* / metabolism
  • Dietary Fiber*
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome*
  • Knee Joint / microbiology
  • Knee Joint / pathology
  • Male
  • Osteoarthritis* / microbiology
  • Osteoarthritis* / pathology
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley*

Substances

  • Dietary Fiber
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by General project of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20221204) and Top Talent Support Program for young and middle-aged people of Wuxi Health Committee(BJ2023052).