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Gut microbiota may be linked to metabolic syndrome in Amish, Caucasians
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A recent study has identified positive and inverse correlations between metabolic syndrome traits and several species of gut microbiota.
Researchers evaluated the gut microbiota of 310 members of the Old Order Amish sect, a group with Central European ancestry located in Lancaster, Penn. Participants, who were chosen for their genetic similarities to the general Caucasian population, provided blood, urine and stool samples and answered questionnaires covering food frequency and medical and family history. Gut microbiota were analyzed through 16S rRNA pyrosequencing of V1-V3 amplicons.
The core microbiota for this cohort consisted of seventeen members of the Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Tenericutes phyla. A correlation was observed between the ratio of bacteroidetes to firmicutes and BMI adjusted for age and sex (r=0.116, P=.04), but not between bacteroidetes/firmicutes ratio and any traits for metabolic syndrome.
Three interacting networks of gut bacteria were identified, and participants were grouped according to which genus was most prominent in their microbiota. The largest group (47% of patients) had Prevotella as the most common genus; the smallest (14% of patients) had Bacteroides; and the remainder (39%) had varying Firmicutes genera, most frequently Oscillospira. No association was found between dominant genus and either BMI or any metabolic syndrome traits.
Researchers observed positive and inverse correlations between BMI and metabolic syndrome traits and 22 species from the Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria phyla, as well as four operational taxonomic unit of the Clostridiales order. Most correlations existed between individual taxons and metabolic traits, but two species, Lachnobacterium bovis and Anaerotruncus colihominis, each had inverse correlations with both elevated BMI and serum triglycerides. Investigators also noted increased abundance of Fusobacterium, J2-29 and Tenacibaculum in a subset of 32 obese patients aged 59 years or older with severe indications of metabolic syndrome, but could not determine whether this was due to changes in the gut microbiota due to age or illness.
“Our results have identified a subset of bacterial taxa that are linked to metabolic syndrome traits; although the cross-sectional nature of this study makes it difficult to infer cause and effect with these data alone,” the researchers wrote. “Follow-on longitudinal studies can begin to address whether specific gut bacterial taxa play a causal role in the predisposition to or development of the metabolic syndrome, as well as the utility of interventions that modulate the composition of the gut microbiota to mitigate the risk of cardiovascular complications associated with metabolic syndrome.”
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