School of Microbiology and APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Cork, T12 YN60, Ireland.
Cell Mol Life Sci. 2018 Jan;75(1):119-128. doi: 10.1007/s00018-017-2673-z. Epub 2017 Oct 6.
Alterations in the composition and function of the gut microbiome have been implicated in a range of conditions and diseases. Culture-dependent and culture-independent studies both showed that older people harbour a gut microbiome that differs in composition from that of younger adults. Detailed analyses have identified discrete microbiota subtypes that characterize intermediates between a high diversity microbiota found in healthy community-dwelling subjects and a low diversity microbiota typical for elderly living in long-term residential care. There are also alterations in the microbiome composition associated with biological age, independent of health status. Even after adjusting for confounding factors such as age and medication, trends in microbiota composition correlate with gradients in clinical metadata particularly frailty and inflammatory status. There are few known mechanisms by which these associations might be causative rather than consequential, and this is a subject of intensive research. The strongest candidate effectors are microbial metabolites that could impact host energy balance, act as signalling molecules to modulate host metabolism or inflammation, and potentially also impact on the gut-brain axis.
肠道微生物组的组成和功能的改变与一系列疾病和病症有关。依赖培养和非依赖培养的研究都表明，老年人的肠道微生物组在组成上与年轻人不同。详细的分析已经确定了离散的微生物群亚型，这些亚型特征是在健康的社区居住者中发现的高多样性微生物群和典型的长期居住在长期护理机构中的老年人的低多样性微生物群之间的中间状态。与健康状况无关，与生物年龄相关的微生物组组成也会发生改变。即使在调整了年龄和药物等混杂因素后，微生物组组成的趋势也与临床元数据的梯度相关，特别是脆弱性和炎症状态。这些关联可能是因果关系而不是结果关系的机制知之甚少，这是一个深入研究的课题。最强的候选效应物是微生物代谢产物，它们可能影响宿主的能量平衡，作为信号分子调节宿主代谢或炎症，并且还可能影响肠道-大脑轴。
