Research Article

The effect of chemotherapeutic drugs on the intestinal flora of gastric cancer tumor-bearing mice

¹ Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, PR China
² Department of First Clinical Medical College, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, PR China
³ Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences, School of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Tronto/10a, 60126 Ancona, Italy
⁴ Department of Digestive System, Jiangyin People’s Hospital, Wuxi 214400, PR China
⁵ Department of Respiratory, Wujin Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changzhou 213000, PR China

^* Corresponding author: shupengsp@outlook.com

Received: 2 October 2021

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the effect of chemotherapeutic drugs on the intestinal flora of tumor-bearing mice using high-throughput sequencing technology. Methods: Twenty BALB/c nude mice were randomly divided into two experimental groups. Each experimental group was divided into a blank group and a drug group, each containing five mice. BGC823 cells were inoculated to all experimental groups. For the blank groups, physiological saline or glucose injection was used for intervention. For the drug groups, oxaliplatin or 5-fluorouracil was used for intervention. Changes in the intestinal flora of mice were detected via the high-throughput sequencing technology. Results: No significant difference in diversity between the blank and drug groups was found. A decrease in the expression of bacteroidetes was noted in the drug groups. Conclusions: The use of chemotherapeutic drugs did not significantly affect the intestinal flora diversity of tumor-bearing nude mice, but it did inhibit the expression of probiotics.