Shuangshuang Wan, Peijun You, Qikai Shi, Hui Hu, Lu Zhang, Leyang Chen, Ziyi Wu, Shan Lin, Xiaojun Song, Yongneng Luo, Yaxuan Wang, Feng Ju, Dazhi Jin, Yu Chen
INTRODUCTION: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), as well as its etiology and pathogenesis, have been extensively investigated. However, the absence of suitable CDI animal models that reflect CDI symptoms and the associated gut microbiome changes in humans has limited research progress in this field. Thus, we aimed to investigate whether Mongolian gerbils, which present a range of human pathological conditions, can been used in studies on CDI. Methods: In this study, we infected Mongolian gerbils and two existing CDI model animals, mice and hamsters, with the hypervirulent ribotype 027 C...
2024: Frontiers in Microbiology