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. 2019 Oct 23:9:369.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00369. eCollection 2019.

Characteristics of Gut Microbiota in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in Shanghai, China

Yang Sun  1   2 , Qian Chen  3 , Ping Lin  4 , Rong Xu  1   2 , Dongyi He  1   2 , Weiqing Ji  1   2 , Yanqin Bian  1   2 , Yu Shen  1   2 , Qingtian Li  3 , Chang Liu  3 , Ke Dong  3 , Yi-Wei Tang  5 , Zhiheng Pei  6   7 , Liying Yang  6   7 , Hongzhou Lu  8 , Xiaokui Guo  3 , Lianbo Xiao  1   2
Affiliations

Characteristics of Gut Microbiota in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in Shanghai, China

Yang Sun et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

Little is known regarding differences in the gut microbiomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy cohorts in China. This study aimed to identify differences in the fecal microbiomes of 66 Chinese patients with RA and 60 healthy Chinese controls. The V3-V4 variable regions of bacterial 16S rRNA genes were sequenced with the Illumina system to define the bacterial composition. The alpha-diversity index of the microbiome of the RA patients was significantly lower than that of the control group. The bacterial genera Bacteroides (p = 0.02202) and Escherichia-Shigella (p = 0.03137) were more abundant in RA patients. In contrast, Lactobacillus (p = 0.000014), Alloprevotella (p = 0.0000008615), Enterobacter (p = 0.000005759), and Odoribacter (p = 0.0000166) were less abundant in the RA group than in the control group. Spearman correlation analysis of blood physiological measures of RA showed that bacterial genera such as Dorea and Ruminococcus were positively correlated with RF-IgA and anti-CCP antibodies. Furthermore, Alloprevotella and Parabacteroides were positively correlated with the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and Prevotella-2 and Alloprevotella were positively correlated with C-reactive protein, both biomarkers of inflammation. These findings suggest that the gut microbiota may contribute to RA development via interactions with the host immune system.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene sequencing; biomarker; gut microbiome; inflammation; rheumatoid arthritis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Accumulation curves for the pan (A) and core (B) species analysis of the RA group (blue lines) and control group (yellow lines).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of the α-diversities of the gut microbiomes in the RA group and control group using the Chao index (A) and Sobs index (B). Chao1 is an index that estimates the number of OTUs contained in a sample. It is commonly used in ecology to estimate the total number of species. Sobs is the observed number of OTUs. ***p < 0.001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
β-diversities of RA group and control group. (A) Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of the RA and control groups. (B) Principal component analysis (PCoA) plot generated from the weighted UniFrac analysis. The x- and y-axes indicate the first and second coordinates, respectively, and the values in parentheses show the percentages of the community variation explained. The blue and yellow symbols depict microbial enrichment in the RA group and control group, respectively. (C) Hierarchical cluster analysis results obtained using UniFrac software.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differences in composition of the gut microbiome between the RA group and control group. (A) Prevalence of bacterial phyla. (B) Compositions of specific bacterial genera with the highest abundances in the RA and control cohorts. (C) qRT-PCR analysis of Bacteroides 16S rRNA genes. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Heatmap of Spearman correlations between bacterial taxa and rheumatoid factors and anti-CCP antibodies (A) or inflammatory biomarkers (B). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.
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