Figure 4.

The diversity of the gut microbial composition was not significantly affected by 8-week probiotic treatments. Gut microbiota were analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing in SD rats after probiotic treatments for 8 weeks. (A) The Shannon diversity index (mean ± SEM) of the microbial community was analyzed in blank control (C0), symptom control (CH), and probiotic groups. (B) The beta diversity of the gut microbial community was presented by the PCoA plot at the OTU level on week 8 with a weighted UniFrac distance derived from 16S rRNA sequencing data. No significant difference was seen between each group. MIX: probiotic mixture of AP-32, bv-77, and CP-9; H = 2.5 × 10¹⁰ CFU/kg/day.