Differential Regulation of Postoperative Gut Microbiota by Inhalation vs Intravenous Anesthesia: NF-κB/HIF-1α-Mediated Macrophage Polarization.
Chen Nami N, Hu Cixian C, Huang Xin X, Zhao Liming L
Perioperative anesthetic strategies are increasingly recognized as important modulators of postoperative immune responses and intestinal microecological homeostasis following gastrointestinal surgery. To systematically explore the differential effects of inhalational anesthesia (sevoflurane) and intravenous anesthesia (propofol) on postoperative intestinal microbiota, and to investigate the potential association between anesthetic methods, NF-κB/HIF-1α signaling pathway, and macrophage polarization using integrated bioinformatics analyses. Publicly available datasets were retrieved from NCBI SRA, GEO, and EMBL-EBI to identify three independent cohorts with clear annotations of gastrointestinal surgery and anesthetic methods. A total of 90 samples were included (30 control, 30 inhalational anesthesia, and 30 intravenous anesthesia). Intestinal microbiota profiles derived from 16S rRNA sequencing were integrated with expression data of NF-κB/HIF-1α pathway-related genes. Microbial diversity, community composition, differential taxa, functional enrichment, and microbe-gene correlations were analyzed using QIIME2, limma, vegan, and related bioinformatics tools to construct the regulatory axis of "anesthetic method-intestinal microbiota-signaling pathway-macrophage polarization." The inhalational anesthesia group exhibited significantly reduced α-diversity (Chao1 and Shannon indices) compared with both the control and intravenous anesthesia groups (P<0.05). β-diversity analysis revealed distinct microbial community structures among the three groups (PERMANOVA R2=0.27, P=0.001). Genus-level analysis demonstrated a marked enrichment of Bacteroides in the inhalational anesthesia group, whereas Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were predominant in the control group. LEfSe analysis identified eight significantly differential genera. Expression of pro-inflammatory NF-κB/HIF-1α pathway genes (NFKB1, IL-6, TNF-α) was significantly up-regulated in the inhalational anesthesia group, accompanied by down-regulation of anti-inflammatory markers (ARG1, IL-10). These alterations were less pronounced in the intravenous anesthesia group. Correlation analysis identified Bacteroides-NFKB1 and Lactobacillus-IL-10 as key regulatory nodes. Functional enrichment revealed inflammation-related pathways enriched under inhalational anesthesia, whereas short-chain fatty acid synthesis pathways were enriched in controls. Inhalational anesthesia is associated with greater disruption of postoperative intestinal microbiota homeostasis than intravenous anesthesia, and is correlated with NF-κB/HIF-1α-related pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization. These findings provide bioinformatics evidence supporting propofol-based intravenous anesthesia and microbiota-targeted strategies to improve postoperative outcomes.