L-arginine Ameliorates Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Attenuates Intestinal Oxidative Stress by Regulating Gut Microbiota

More than half of Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) women are overweight or obese, and weight gain amplifies and worsens the symptoms of PCOS. Hence, it is essential to further understand and treat PCOS women with obesity. Therefore, this study tried to use a multi-omics approach that integrates the gut microbiome, serum metabolomics, serum transcriptomics, and clinical indicators to distinguish obese PCOS from obese non-PCOS women. The stool and blood samples from 33 obese PCOS patients and 30 obese control women were collected. The sequencing results suggested there were significant differences in gut microbiome and metabolites between obese PCOS women and obese women. Of which, the level of L-arginine (Arg) in obese PCOS patients was significantly lower than that in the control group and associated with gut microbiota alterations. Further correlation analysis between metabolite and clinical phenotype showed that Arg was significantly correlated with the clinical phenotype of obese PCOS patients. In this study, C57BL/6 mice were treated with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) with a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce obese PCOS mice models for 3 weeks. PCOS mice were randomly divided into four groups: Arg group, Arg + antibiotic cocktail (ABX) group, PCOS group, and PCOS + ABX group. After 3 weeks of Arg supplementation, the estrous cycle, ovarian morphology, intestinal oxidative stress and intestinal barrier integrity were improved in Arg group PCOS mice, while testosterone levels and insulin resistance levels were decreased. However, these improvements were not observed in the Arg plus ABX group, suggesting that ABX-mediated depletion of the gut microbiome would eliminate these improvements. Then the 16s rRNA sequencing was performed to determine the gut microbiota of the four groups. The results showed that Arg can ameliorate reproductive characteristics of PCOS and attenuate intestinal oxidative stress by regulating gut microbiota. Disclosure D.Dilimulati: None. M.Cai: None. Y.Zhang: None. S.Qu: None. M.Zhang: None.