Fig. 2

Rats that received FMT exhibit a shift in gut microbiota composition. A Experimental design. After 2 weeks of acclimatization, the rats were treated with antibiotics for 2 weeks. Then, fecal suspensions from either control patients or POCD patients were transferred to C group (n = 10) or P group (n = 10) rats for 3 weeks. After 6 days of the MWM test, fecal samples, blood samples and brain tissue were collected from the rats for further analysis. B Venn diagram of ASVs. C PCoA plot based on weighted UniFrac distances between the two groups. Changes in the relative abundances of the main bacterial communities at the phylum (D) and genus (E) levels. F The relative abundance of the Desulfobacterota phylum. G The bacterial communities with significant differences at genus levels. H Cladogram of LEfSe results comparing bacterial communities from the phylum to genus level. I KEGG pathway functional gene difference analysis. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01