Fig. 4

Pan-Probiotic (PP) treatment induces significant shifts in the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa in a sex- and condition-dependent manner. The shifts in microbial communities following sham and TBI interventions, VH or PP-treated between the 2-week and 7-week time frames. The mean log fold change in abundance of a particular taxon, with the blue bars indicating a decrease and the red bars indicating an increase in abundance after 7 weeks of treatment compared to the 2 weeks of treatment. (a) Differential abundance analysis of microbial taxa in sham mice treated with VH revealed significant changes in males, including decreases in Bifidobacterium and Dubosiella and an increase in Lachnoclostridium. In contrast, no significant differences were observed in females treated with VH (b). In sham-PP treated groups, males (c) showed a notable increase in Lactiplantibacillus and Limosilactobacillus, while females (d) exhibited significant increases in Lactiplantibacillus and Lactocaseibacillus. In TBI groups, neither males (e) nor females (f) in the VH group showed significant changes in microbial taxa at 35 days post-injury (dpi). In contrast, males (g) in the TBI-PP group exhibited a notable increase in Lactobacillaceae HT002 and Lactiplantibacillus, along with a reduction in Enterorhabdus. Females (h) in the TBI-PP group displayed significant shifts, including elevated levels of Lactobacillaceae HT002, Lactiplantibacillus, Limosilactobacillus, and Lactocaseibacillus. Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean (SEM). A minimum log-fold change threshold of 0.5 was applied for visualization. Statistical significance was assessed using q-values from the ANCOMBC2 analysis, with significance thresholds set at *q < 0.05, **q < 0.01, and ***q < 0.001. n = 10 mice/group