FIG 3.

OPN significantly influenced the intestinal microbiota in HFD-fed mice. WT and OPN-KO mice were fed with ND or HFD for 24 weeks. (A) Microbial β-diversity among the four groups (ND-WT, ND-KO, HFD-WT, HFD-KO) was distinguished using Nonmetric Multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis. (B) Bacterial taxonomic profiling at the phylum level of luminal bacteria and (C) Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio in the indicated four groups. (D) The relative abundance of the bacterical genera Lactobacillus and Dorea were selected for comparison in the relative abundance among the four groups. (E) Species including D. formicigenerans, D. longicatena, L. reuteri, L. animalis, L. gasseri, L. salivarius, L. ruminis, L. rhamnosus, L. mali, L. casei, L. coryniformis, and L. johnsonii were selected for comparison in the relative abundance among the four groups. (F) The correlation was analyzed between the relative abundance of the three selected species D. formicigenerans, L. ruminis, and L. rhamnosus, and the levels of OPN and body weight. (G) In humans, the relative abundances of D. formicigenerans, L. ruminis, and L. rhamnosus were compared between the microbiota of individuals with metabolic disorders and the microbiota of healthy controls. (H) The correlation network of Lactobacillus and other gut bacterial genera (red, positive; blue, negative). (I) The fecal relative abundance of D. formicigenerans was detected at day 7, following the intragastric administration of L. rhamnosus (1 × 10⁹). Data are given as mean ± SEM. A Wilcoxon test (panels C–E), the Spearman's rank correlation (panel F), the Pearson correlation (panel H), and a Student’s t test (panels G, I) were used to analyze the data with n = 8 to 12 per group. * or ^#, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01.