Laue Hannah E, Willis Amy D, Wang Fang, MacDougall Melinda C, Xu Yingying, Karagas Margaret R, Madan Juliette C, Fleisch Abby F, Lanphear Bruce P, Cecil Kim M, Yolton Kimberly, Chen Aimin, Buckley Jessie P, Braun Joseph M
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, 715 N. Pleasant Street, Arnold House 429, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, 3980 15 Avenue NE, Box 351617, Seattle, WA, 98195-1617, USA.
Genome Med. 2025 May 8;17(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s13073-025-01481-1.
The microbiome of adolescents is poorly understood, as are factors influencing its composition. We aimed to describe the healthy adolescent microbiome and identify early-life and concurrent predictors of its composition.
We performed metagenomic sequencing of 247 fecal specimens from 167 adolescents aged 11-14 years participating in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a longitudinal pregnancy and birth cohort (Cincinnati, OH). We described common features of the adolescent gut microbiome and applied self-organizing maps (SOMs)-a machine-learning approach-to identify distinct microbial profiles (n = 4). Using prospectively collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle, diet, and sexual maturation, we identified early-life and concurrent factors associated with microbial diversity and phylum relative abundance with linear regression models and composition with Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher's exact tests.
We found that household income and other sociodemographic factors were consistent predictors of the microbiome, with higher income associated with lower diversity and differential relative abundances of Firmicutes (increased) and Actinobacteria (decreased). Sexual maturation, distinct from chronological age, was related to higher diversity in females and differences in phylum relative abundances and compositional profiles in both males and females.
Our study suggests that adolescence is a unique window for gut microbial composition and that it may be shaped by both early-life and concurrent exposures, highlighting its potential in future epidemiologic research.
青少年的微生物组鲜为人知，影响其组成的因素也是如此。我们旨在描述健康青少年的微生物组，并确定其组成的早期生活和同时期预测因素。
我们对167名年龄在11至14岁的青少年的247份粪便样本进行了宏基因组测序，这些青少年参与了健康结果与环境测量（HOME）研究，这是一个纵向的妊娠和出生队列研究（俄亥俄州辛辛那提）。我们描述了青少年肠道微生物组的共同特征，并应用自组织映射（SOM）——一种机器学习方法——来识别不同的微生物谱（n = 4）。利用前瞻性收集的关于社会人口学特征、生活方式、饮食和性成熟的数据，我们通过线性回归模型确定了与微生物多样性和门相对丰度相关的早期生活和同时期因素，以及通过Kruskal-Wallis检验和Fisher精确检验确定了与微生物组成相关的因素。
我们发现家庭收入和其他社会人口学因素是微生物组的一致预测因素，收入较高与较低的多样性以及厚壁菌门（增加）和放线菌门（减少）的相对丰度差异有关。与实际年龄不同，性成熟与女性较高的多样性以及男性和女性的门相对丰度和组成谱差异有关。
我们的研究表明，青春期是肠道微生物组成的一个独特窗口，它可能受到早期生活和同时期暴露的影响，突出了其在未来流行病学研究中的潜力。
