Fig 2.
Early exposures to anaesthesia/surgery changed the composition of the gut microbiome in juvenile rats. (a) Illustration of experimental design. (b) Principal components analysis (PCoA) of weighted UniFrac distance representing beta diversity of the gut microbiota in rats of both Control (red) and Multiple AS groups (green). The first two axes are represented with principal coordinate axis 1 (46.6% variability) and principal coordinate axis 2 (21.1% variability). (c) Indices representing alpha diversity of the gut microbiota between Control and Multiple AS groups. The analysis of alpha diversity indices showed no statistical difference between groups (Pobserved species=0.26, PChao1=0.06, PShannon=0.28, PSimpson=0.12, all P>0.05). (d–g) Differences in the microbiota composition at the phylum (d and e) and family levels (f and g) in rats from the Control and Multiple AS groups. Bar graphs show individual rat (d) and mean (e) relative abundance of the major phyla. Bar graphs show individual rat (f) and mean (g) relative abundance of the major families. (h and i) Differences in the microbiota composition at the phylum and family levels in rats from the Control, Multiple A, and Multiple AS groups. Bar graphs showed mean relative abundance of the major phyla (h) and major families (i). Multiple A, multiple anaesthesia without surgery; Multiple AS, multiple sevoflurane/surgery exposure; PND, postnatal day.