Drinking water temperatures altered serum metabolomics and fecal microbiome in a mouse model

Abstract

Abstract The diet temperature could potentially affect health outcomes. Our study designed the experiment using a mouse model to explore the effect of the drinking water temperature on physiological states. The results indicated that the administration of drinking water at two different temperatures (4℃ representing the cold water and 45℃ representing the warm water) did not significantly affect the food/water intake and body weight but altered serum metabolomics and fecal microbiome. Compared to the control (23℃), the administration of cold water and warm water were both found to affect the pyrimidine metabolism, as evidenced by the decreasing in serum metabolites of Uridine, Cytidine, Deoxyuridine, Dihydrothymine. Moreover, cold water altered fatty acid biosynthesis while warm water affected the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) which was involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Regarding the gut microbiome, cold water and warm water both could increase the gut microbiome richness and diversity, reduce the F/B ratio, and promote the population of Bifidobacterium when compare to the control group. Meanwhile, cold water additionally increased the abundances of Alistipes, Acinetobacter, and Pseudochrobactrum while the warm water administration reduced the richness Alcaligenes, Coprococcus, Planctomyces, and Polaribacter. Our findings demonstrated that both cold and warm drinking water temperatures appear to alter pyrimidine metabolism and exhibit potential health benefits by increasing bacteria richness and diversity of gut microbiome, in particular the beneficial bacteria Bifidobacterium. Additionally, cold water administration was relevant to fatty acid metabolism while warm water could affect carbohydrate metabolism.