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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

Sec. Molecular Bacterial Pathogenesis

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1616164

This article is part of the Research TopicImproving the Gut Microbiome: Applications of Fecal Transplantation in Disease - Volume IIView all 4 articles

Propionic Acid Mediates the Renoprotective Effects of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation against Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury via upregulating GPR43

Provisionally accepted
Jingxuan YuJingxuan Yu1Zhenyu LiuZhenyu Liu1Yan WangYan Wang1Yu ZhouYu Zhou1Wei LiuWei Liu1Tao WangTao Wang1Qiubo XieQiubo Xie1Hongzhe TianHongzhe Tian1Yalong XuYalong Xu1Min WangMin Wang1Fuhan ZhaoFuhan Zhao1Lin WangLin Wang1Guan ZhangGuan Zhang1Dongliang ChenDongliang Chen2*Lei GaoLei Gao1*Tiejun PanTiejun Pan1*
  • 1General Hospital of Central Theater Command of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Wuhan, China
  • 2China Peptide and Life ScienceResearch Institute, Wuhan, China

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Kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a critical contributor to acute kidney injury (AKI), characterized by exacerbated inflammation and apoptosis following reperfusion. This study investigates the renoprotective effects of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and its underlying mechanisms in a rat model of kidney IRI. Sprague-Dawley rats (SDRs) subjected to bilateral kidney ischemia (45 min) followed by reperfusion were prophylactically treated with FMT derived from guinea pigs or propionic acid supplementation. Kidney function, histopathology, inflammatory markers, apoptosis, proliferation and gut microbiota composition were systematically evaluated. These findings demonstrate that FMT alleviates IRI by reshaping gut microbiota to enhance propionic acid production, which modulates inflammation and apoptosis via GPR43 signaling. This study provides novel insights into microbiota-targeted therapies for kidney IRI, highlighting propionic acid as a potential therapeutic agent.

Keywords: fecal microbiota transplantation, Acute Kidney Injury, ischemia-reperfusion injury, short-chain fatty acids, Lachnospiraceae

Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Liu, Wang, Zhou, Liu, Wang, Xie, Tian, Xu, Wang, Zhao, Wang, Zhang, Chen, Gao and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Dongliang Chen, China Peptide and Life ScienceResearch Institute, Wuhan, China
Lei Gao, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Wuhan, China
Tiejun Pan, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Wuhan, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material