Loading...
Impact of healthy aging on active bacterial assemblages throughout the gastrointestinal tract.
Schütte, Kerstin Schulz, Christian Vilchez-Vargas, Ramiro Vasapolli, Riccardo Palm, Frederike Simon, Bianca Schomburg, Dirk Lux, Anke Geffers, Robert Pieper, Dietmar H
Schütte, Kerstin
Schulz, Christian
Vilchez-Vargas, Ramiro
Vasapolli, Riccardo
Palm, Frederike
Simon, Bianca
Schomburg, Dirk
Lux, Anke
Geffers, Robert
Pieper, Dietmar H
Citations
Altmetric:
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Issue Date
2021-08-30
Submitted date
Files
Loading...
Open Access publication
Adobe PDF, 3.14 MB
Other Titles
Abstract
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.
Citation
Gut Microbes. 2021 Jan-Dec;13(1):1966261. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2021.1966261.
Publisher
Journal
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Additional Links
Embedded video
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
Series/Report no.
ISSN
EISSN
1949-0984
ISBN
ISMN
Gov't Doc #
Sponsors
License
Attribution 4.0 International