Gut Bacteria Restoration Reduces Inflammation After Spinal Injury

Ohio State University researchers found that restoring depleted gut bacteria reduced inflammation and stabilized weight loss in injured mice.

Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Life Sciences

Clear petri dishes with pale amber bacterial colonies sit on a steel laboratory bench beside a rack of glass test tubes under soft daylight. — Restoring a depleted gut bacterium reduced inflammation and stabilized weight in mice after spinal cord injury, Ohio State University researchers reported. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Researchers at The Ohio State University found that restoring a strain of bacteria depleted after spinal cord injury reduced inflammation in mice. A separate study identified 19 bacterial species linked to changes in nitrogen levels following injury.

Why it matters

Spinal cord injury can disrupt communication between the brain and organs, including the gut, and the findings point to gut microbes as a possible factor in recovery. Ohio's research institutions are among those studying how these changes unfold.

The studies analyzed 333 fecal samples from mice, generating 6,635 draft microbial genomes and covering an estimated 80% of the gut microbiome in one commonly used mouse strain, compared against uninjured control animals. Whether these mouse findings translate to human spinal cord injury recovery remains unknown.

The players

The Ohio State University

A public research university in Columbus, Ohio, whose researchers conducted the experiments described in the studies.

The details

Researchers compared mice with injuries at different levels of the thoracic spinal cord against animals without spinal cord damage and tracked changes over six months. Lactobacillus johnsonii was consistently depleted in injured mice, and nitrogen balance changed in injured male mice as bacteria that convert a compound into a usable form of nitrogen declined.

Researchers tracked changes in injured mice over a six-month period.

The Big Picture

The findings extend Ohio State University's work on the gut microbiome into spinal cord injury, suggesting the gut-brain axis may play a role beyond digestion. The two studies, published in NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes and Communications Biology, add to a growing body of research linking gut bacteria to neurological outcomes.

Restoring specific gut bacteria could eventually become a targeted approach to support recovery after spinal cord injury, though current findings come only from mouse studies. Patients and clinicians should not expect changes to treatment until human trials test whether these approaches are safe and effective.

The takeaway

Gut health appears connected to recovery pathways beyond digestion, and continued research will determine whether these links can become practical treatments for people with spinal cord injuries.