Fig. 4: Changes in the alpha-diversity of the gut microbiota before and after the administration of antibiotics or PBS to PAN rats.

a Observed features of the gut microbiota. b The Shannon index of the gut microbiota. Observed features of the gut microbiota indicating the number of observed species did not change significantly before and after PBS administration (p = 0.72), but were significantly decreased after 10 days of antibiotic administration (p = 0.0014). Similarly, Shannon index, which indicates the abundance and homogeneity of bacterial species, showed no significant change before and after PBS administration (p = 0.78), but was significantly lower after 10 days of antibiotic administration (p = 0.0028). PBS phosphate-buffered saline, PAN puromycin aminonucleoside.