A biotin-free diet attenuates the incidence of collagen-induced arthritis and alleviates microbial dysbiosis

Abstract

Emerging evidence has shown that the gut microbiota and its products are important triggers in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Biotin is a diet- and microbiome-dependent metabolite and an immune regulator; however, the role of biotin in RA remains unknown. In this study, we observed abnormal fecal biotin excretion in RA patients, which correlated with microbial alterations. Specifically, biotin content was inversely associated with gut microbial genera enriched in healthy controls, including Roseburia and Dorea. Meanwhile, it positively correlated with Oscillospira, which was highly enriched in RA individuals. Moreover, collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice fed a biotin-free diet had attenuated arthritis incidence with depressed differentiation of splenic CD3+ T cells and restored microbial diversities. The biotin-free diet also increased bone mass and protected against inflammation-induced bone loss in CIA mice. Additionally, the biotin-free diet reshaped the host metabolic phenotype of amino acids and microbial composition. Notably, biotin deficiency ameliorated the augmentation of Oscillospira in CIA mice. Collectively, our results suggested a potential link between biotin deficiency, gut microbiota dysbiosis and CIA progression.

Graphical abstract: A biotin-free diet attenuates the incidence of collagen-induced arthritis and alleviates microbial dysbiosis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Mar 2025
Accepted
04 May 2025
First published
29 May 2025
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Food Funct., 2025, Advance Article

A biotin-free diet attenuates the incidence of collagen-induced arthritis and alleviates microbial dysbiosis

X. Su, X. Li, X. He, S. Zhou, A. Lyu and Z. Cai, Food Funct., 2025, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5FO01457C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements