Department of Affective Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou (Guangzhou Huiai Hospital), China; Academician workstation of Mood and Brain Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing.
J Affect Disord. 2021 Oct 1;293:363-372. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.06.025. Epub 2021 Jun 20.
Animal and human studies have revealed reciprocal association between exercise and gut-brain axis. However, the clinical evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCT) are still limited to directly assess the effects of aerobic exercise on gut microbiota. To fill this gap, we conducted this 12-week RCT in both groups of adolescents with and without sub-threshold mood symptoms.
A total of 224 adolescents were randomized to the aerobic exercise intervention or psychoeducation-controlled arm. 49 adolescents with subthreshold symptoms and 142 clinically-well adolescents provided the sample for microbiota assessed by metagenomic sequencing. Aerobic exercise of running at the moderate-intensity for 30 min per day, 5 days a week, were conducted for 12 weeks.
Adolescents with subthreshold symptoms had significantly lower beta diversity than clinically-well adolescents in both the exercise intervention and psychoeducation-controlled arms (p<0.05). After intervention, no difference in gut microbiota diversity, phylum, genus, species level abundancies or gut microbial functions were found in both of the symptomatic or non-symptomatic groups. Metagenome-wide association study analysis showed no significant difference in metagenomic linkage groups.
The sample size is relatively small. The exercise intensity we employed may be insufficient to result in observable effects on intestinal microbiota.
We conclude that a 12-week moderate-intensity aerobic exercise intervention showed no significant beneficial effect on the gut microbiota in clinically-well adolescents as well as in adolescents with subthreshold symptoms. The beta diversity of gut microbiota in adolescents with subthreshold mood syndromes may be impaired when compared with clinically-well adolescents.
动物和人体研究表明，运动与肠脑轴之间存在相互关联。然而，来自随机对照试验（RCT）的临床证据仍然仅限于直接评估有氧运动对肠道微生物群的影响。为了填补这一空白，我们在有和没有阈下情绪症状的青少年两组中进行了这项为期 12 周的 RCT。
共有 224 名青少年被随机分配到有氧运动干预组或心理教育对照组。49 名有阈下症状的青少年和 142 名临床良好的青少年提供了通过宏基因组测序评估的微生物组样本。有氧运动为每天 30 分钟、每周 5 天、中等强度的跑步，持续 12 周。
在运动干预组和心理教育对照组中，有阈下症状的青少年的β多样性明显低于临床良好的青少年（p<0.05）。干预后，在有症状或无症状组中，肠道微生物多样性、门、属、种水平丰度或肠道微生物功能均无差异。宏基因组关联研究分析显示，宏基因组连锁群没有显著差异。
样本量相对较小。我们采用的运动强度可能不足以对肠道微生物群产生可观察到的影响。
我们的结论是，12 周的中等强度有氧运动干预对临床良好的青少年以及有阈下症状的青少年的肠道微生物群没有显著的有益影响。与临床良好的青少年相比，有阈下情绪综合征的青少年的肠道微生物群β多样性可能受损。
