Department of Internal Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Wallenburg Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Sci Rep. 2021 Dec 1;11(1):23254. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02558-8.
Poor taste and smell function are widely thought to contribute to the development of poor appetite and undernutrition in older adults. It has been hypothesized that the oral microbiota play a role as well, but evidence is scarce. In a cross-sectional cohort of 356 older adults, we performed taste and smell tests, collected anthropometric measurements and tongue swabs for analysis of microbial composition (16S rRNA sequencing) and Candida albicans abundance (qPCR). Older age, edentation, poor smell and poor appetite were associated with lower alpha diversity and explained a significant amount of beta diversity. Moreover, a lower Streptococcus salivarius abundance was associated with poor smell identification score, whereas high C. albicans abundance seemed to be associated with poor smell discrimination score. In our population, neither the tongue microbiota, nor C. albicans were associated with poor taste or directly with undernutrition. Our findings do suggest a host-microbe interaction with regard to smell perception and appetite.
味觉和嗅觉功能差被广泛认为是导致老年人食欲减退和营养不良的原因之一。人们推测口腔微生物群也可能起作用，但证据有限。在一项对 356 名老年人的横断面队列研究中，我们进行了味觉和嗅觉测试，收集了人体测量学数据，并采集了舌拭子进行微生物组成（16S rRNA 测序）和白色念珠菌丰度（qPCR）分析。结果显示，年龄较大、缺牙、嗅觉差和食欲差与较低的 alpha 多样性相关，并解释了大量的 beta 多样性。此外，较低的唾液链球菌丰度与嗅觉识别评分差相关，而白色念珠菌丰度高似乎与嗅觉辨别评分差相关。在我们的人群中，无论是舌微生物群还是白色念珠菌都与味觉差或直接与营养不良无关。我们的研究结果确实表明宿主-微生物相互作用与嗅觉感知和食欲有关。
