Gut microbiome-derived lipopolysaccharides aggravate cognitive impairment via TLR4-mediated inflammatory signaling in neonatal rats following hypoxic-ischemic brain damage

Abstract

Hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) is a leading cause of infant mortality and neurological disabilities in children. Recent evidence indicates that gut microbiota significantly contributes to the development of inflammation and cognitive impairments following brain injury. However, the mechanisms by which gut microbiota influence inflammation and cognitive function in the neonates after HIBD are not well understood. This study established a neonatal rat model of HIBD by the classic Rice-Vannucci technique to investigate gut dysbiosis following hypoxic-ischemic (HI) insult and to elucidate the causal relationship between gut dysbiosis and cognitive impairments. Our results demonstrated that HI insult resulted in significant gut microbial dysbiosis, characterized by an expansion of Enterobacteriaceae. This dysbiosis was associated with intestinal barrier damage, lipopolysaccharides (LPS) leakage, and systemic inflammation. Conversely, administration of aminoguanidine (AG) to inhibit Enterobacteriaceae overgrowth restored intestinal barrier integrity and reduced systemic inflammation. Importantly, AG treatment effectively suppressed microglial activation, neuronal damage, and cognitive impairments in the neonatal rats subjected to HI insult. Additionally, RNA sequencing analysis revealed that differentially expressed genes in both colonic and hippocampal tissues were primarily associated with inflammation and neuronal apoptosis after HI insult. Further mechanistic exploration revealed that AG treatment mitigated intestinal LPS leakage, thereby reducing the activation of the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway and production of the downstream inflammatory cytokines in both the colon and hippocampus. Notably, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from the HIBD rats to the antibiotic cocktail-treated recipient rats resulted in microglial activation, neuronal damage, and cognitive impairments in the recipients. However, these adverse effects were effectively mitigated in the recipient rats that received FMT from the AG-treated donors, as well as in those undergoing hippocampal TLR4 knockdown. In conclusion, our findings indicate that LPS derived from gut Enterobacteriaceae overgrowth plays a critical role in the TLR4-mediated inflammatory signaling, providing a novel microbiota-based therapeutic approach for cognitive impairments following neonatal HIBD.