Relationship between gut microbiota and circulating metabolites in population-based cohorts
Vojinovic D., Radjabzadeh D., Kurilshikov A., Amin N., Wijmenga C., Franke L., Ikram A., Uitterlinden A., Zhernakova A., Fu J., Kraaij R., van Duijn C.
ABSTRACT Gut microbiota has been implicated in major diseases affecting the human population and has also been linked to triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein levels in the circulation. As recent development in metabolomics allows classifying the lipoprotein particles into more details, we aimed to examine the impact of gut microbiota on circulating metabolites measured by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ( 1 H-NMR) technology in 2,309 individuals from the Rotterdam Study and the LifeLines-DEEP cohort in whom gut microbiota was profiled using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The relationship between gut microbiota and metabolites was assessed by linear regression analysis while adjusting for age, sex, body-mass index, technical covariates, medication use, and multiple testing. Our analysis revealed association of 32 microbial families and genera with very-low-density and high-density subfractions, serum lipid measures, glycolysis-related metabolites, amino acids, and acute phase reaction markers. These observations provide novel insights into the role of microbiota in host metabolism and support the potential of gut microbiota as a target for therapeutic and preventive interventions.