Gut microbiota composition and diversity in the elderly supported by institution-based care and home-based care / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the gut microbiota diversity between the elderly supported by institution-based care and home-based care. Methods Fresh stool samples were collected from 18 aged per-sons supported by institution-based care (G1 group), 20 aged persons with home-based care (G2 group) and 20 middle-aged and young adults (G3 group). The V3-V4 hypervariable region of 16S rDNA was ampli-fied and sequenced by next generation sequencing technology. Operational taxonomic units ( OTUs) were an-alyzed by QIIME analysis platform for species annotation, diversity analysis, and inter-group difference anal-ysis. Statistical analysis was performed using RStudio software. Results The top 6 microbiological taxa in the three groups were Firmicute, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Fusobacteria and Verru-comicrobia. The abundance of the Firmicute in the G1 and G2 groups showed significant differences [(61. 47±5. 58)％ vs (76. 55±3. 64)％, P<0. 05]. The G1 and G3 groups had a statistically significant difference in the abundance of the Proteobacteria [(9. 59±12. 68)％ vs (2. 15±2. 47)％, P<0. 05]. The abundance of both Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria was higher in the G1 group than in the G2 group without significant difference between the two groups. No significant differences in diversity indices ( Shannon, Simpson and Chao1) were found between G1 and G2 groups (P>0. 05). Results of the NMDS analysis showed that the intra-group differences were greater than inter-group differences in G1 and G2 groups. Con-clusions No significant difference in the diversity of gut microbiota was detected between the elderly sup-ported by institution-based care and home-based care, but there were differences in the composition of the predominant gut microbiota.