Impact of healthy aging on active bacterial assemblages throughout the gastrointestinal tract

Autor: Kerstin Schütte, Christian Schulz, Ramiro Vilchez-Vargas, Riccardo Vasapolli, Frederike Palm, Bianca Simon, Dirk Schomburg, Anke Lux, Robert Geffers, Dietmar H. Pieper, Alexander Link, Peter Malfertheiner
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Gut Microbes, Vol 13, Iss 1 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1949-0976
1949-0984
19490976
DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2021.1966261
Popis: The adaption of gut microbiota (GM) throughout human life is a key factor in maintaining health. Interventions to restore a healthy GM composition may have the potential to improve health and disease outcomes in the elderly. We performed a comprehensive characterization of changes in the luminal and mucosa-associated microbiota composition in elderly compared with younger healthy individuals. Samples from saliva and feces, and biopsies from the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract (UGIT, LGIT), were collected from 59 asymptomatic individuals grouped by age: 40–55, 56–70, and 71–85 years). All underwent anthropometric, geriatric, and nutritional assessment. RNA was extracted and reverse-transcribed into complementary DNA; the V1–V2 regions of 16S ribosomal RNA genes were amplified and sequenced. Abundances of the taxa in all taxonomic ranks in each sample type were used to construct sample-similarity matrices by the Bray–Curtis algorithm. Significant differences between defined groups were assessed by analysis of similarity. The bacterial community showed strong interindividual variations and a clear distinction between samples from UGIT, LGIT, and feces. While in saliva some taxa were affected by aging, this number was considerably greater in UGIT and was subsequently higher in LGIT. Unexpectedly, aging scarcely influenced the bacterial community of feces over the age range of 40–85 years. The development of interventions to preserve and restore human health with increased age by establishing a healthy gut microbiome should not rely solely on data from fecal analysis, as the intestinal mucosa is affected by more significant changes, which differ from those observed in fecal analyses.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals