The small bowel microbiome changes significantly with age and aspects of the ageing process
Authors:Gabriela Leite1, Mark Pimentel1,2, Gillian M. Barlow1 and Ruchi Mathur1,3
doi: 10.15698/mic2022.01.768
Volume 9, pp. 21 to 23, published 27/12/2021.
1 Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2 Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
3 Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Keywords:
age, aging, small intestinal microbiome, medication use, concomitant diseases, proteobacteria, coliforms
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Please cite this article as:
Gabriela Leite, Mark Pimentel, Gillian M. Barlow and Ruchi Mathur (2021). The small bowel microbiome changes significantly with age and aspects of the ageing process. Microbial Cell 9(1): 21-23. doi: 10.15698/mic2022.01.768
© 2021 Leite et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Gut microbiome changes have been associated with human ageing and implicated in age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. However, studies to date have used stool samples, which do not represent the entire gut. Although more challenging to access, the small intestine plays critical roles in host metabolism and immune function. In this paper (Leite et al. (2021), Cell Reports, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109765), we demonstrate significant differences in the small intestinal microbiome in older subjects, using duodenal aspirates from 251 subjects aged 18-80 years. Differences included significantly decreased microbial diversity in older subjects, driven by increased relative abundance of phylum Proteobacteria, particularly family Enterobacteriaceae and coliform genera Escherichia and Klebsiella. Moreover, while this decreased diversity was associated with the ‘ageing process’ (comprising chronologic age, number of medications, and number of concomitant diseases), changes in certain taxa were found to be associated with number of medications alone (Klebsiella), number of diseases alone (Clostridium, Bilophila), or chronologic age alone (Escherichia, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus). Lastly, many taxa associated with increasing chronologic age were anaerobes. These changes may contribute to changes in human health that occur during the ageing process.