The Effects of Ketamine on the Gut Microbiome on CD1 Mice
The intestinal microbiota of an organism can significantly alter outcome data in otherwise identical experiments. Occasionally,animals may require sedation or anesthesia for scientific or health-related purposes, and certain anesthetics, suchas ketamine, can profoundly affect the gastrointestinal system. While many factors can alter the gut microbiome (GM), theeffects of anesthetics on the composition or diversity of the GM have not been established. The goal of the current study wasto determine whether daily administration of ketamine would significantly alter the microbiome of CD1 mice. To achievethis goal, female CD1 mice received daily injections of ketamine HCl (100 mg/kg) or the equivalent volume of 0.9% salinefor 10 consecutive days. Fecal samples were collected before the first administration and 24 h after the final dose of eitherketamine or saline. Samples were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing to identify changes between groups in diversity orcomposition of GM. The study found no significant changes to the GM after serial ketamine administration when treatedmice were housed with controls. Therefore, ketamine administration is unlikely to alter the GM of a CD1 mouse and should not serve be a confounding factor in reproducibility of research.