Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Madison.
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2020 Jun 18;75(7):1293-1298. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glaa048.
Aging is a multifactorial process characterized by progressive changes in gut physiology and the intestinal mucosal immune system. These changes, along with alterations in lifestyle, diet, nutrition, inflammation and immune function alter both composition and stability of the gut microbiota. Given the impact of environmental influences on the gut microbiota, animal models are particularly useful in this field. To understand the relationship between the gut microbiota and aging in nonhuman primates, we collected fecal samples from 20 male and 20 female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), across the natural macaque age range, for 16S rRNA gene analyses. Operational taxonomic units were then grouped together to summarize taxon abundance at different hierarchical levels of classification and alpha- and beta-diversity were calculated. There were no age or sex differences in alpha diversity. At the phylum level, relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and Firmicutes to Bacteriodetes ratio were different between age groups though significance disappeared after correction for multiple comparisons. At the class level, relative abundance of Firmicutes_Bacilli decreased and Proteobacteria_Alphaproteobacteria and Proteobacteria_Betaproteobacteria increased with each successively older group. Only differences in Firmicutes_Bacilli remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons. No sex differences were identified in relative abundances after correction for multiple comparisons. Our results are not surprising given the known impact of environmental factors on the gut microbiota.
衰老是一个多因素过程，其特征是肠道生理学和肠道黏膜免疫系统的进行性变化。这些变化，以及生活方式、饮食、营养、炎症和免疫功能的改变，改变了肠道微生物群落的组成和稳定性。鉴于环境因素对肠道微生物群落的影响，动物模型在这一领域特别有用。为了了解肠道微生物群落与非人类灵长类动物衰老之间的关系，我们收集了 20 只雄性和 20 只雌性恒河猴（Macaca mulatta）的粪便样本，跨越了自然猕猴年龄范围，用于 16S rRNA 基因分析。然后将操作分类单位（OTUs）分组在一起，以总结不同分类层次的分类丰度，并计算 alpha 和 beta 多样性。alpha 多样性没有年龄或性别的差异。在门水平上，尽管在进行多次比较校正后，各组之间的变形菌门和厚壁菌门的相对丰度以及厚壁菌门与拟杆菌门的比值存在差异，但仍有统计学意义。在纲水平上，厚壁菌门_芽孢杆菌的相对丰度减少，而变形菌门_α-变形菌和变形菌门_β-变形菌的相对丰度随着年龄的增加而增加。在进行多次比较校正后，只有厚壁菌门_芽孢杆菌的差异仍有统计学意义。在进行多次比较校正后，未发现相对丰度存在性别差异。考虑到环境因素对肠道微生物群落的已知影响，我们的结果并不令人惊讶。
