Gut microbiota dysbiosis in male patients with chronic traumatic complete spinal cord injury

Abstract

BackgroundNeurogenic bowel dysfunction (NBD) is a major physical and psychological problem in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), and gut dysbiosis is commonly occurs in SCI. Here, we document neurogenic bowel management of male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI in our centre and perform comparative analysis of the gut microbiota between our patients and healthy males.MethodsA total of 43 male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI (20 with quadriplegia and 23 with paraplegia) and 23 healthy male adults were enrolled. Clinical data and fresh stool specimens were collected from all participants. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to survey the neurogenic bowel management of 43 patients with SCI. Gut microbiomes were analysed by sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene.ResultsNBD was common in adult male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI. Patients with quadriplegia exhibited a longer time to defecate than did those with paraplegia and had higher NBD scores and heavier neurogenic bowel symptoms. The diversity of the gut microbiota in the SCI group was reduced, and the structural composition was different from that of the healthy adult male group. The abundance of Veillonellaceae and Prevotellaceae increased, while Bacteroidaceae and Bacteroides decreased in the SCI group. The abundance of Bacteroidaceae and Bacteroides in the quadriplegia group and Acidaminococcaceae, Blautia, Porphyromonadaceae, and Lachnoclostridium in the paraplegia group were significantly higher than those in the healthy male group. Serum biomarkers (GLU, HDL, CR, and CRP), NBD defecation time and COURSE had significant correlations with microbial community structure. Microbial community structure was significantly associated with serum biomarkers (GLU, HDL, CR, and CRP), NBD defecation time, and COURSE.ConclusionsThis study presents a comprehensive landscape of the gut microbiota in adult male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI and documents their neurogenic bowel management. Gut microbiota dysbiosis in SCI patients was correlated with serum biomarkers and NBD symptoms.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-018-1735-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Effect of fecal microbiota transplantation on neurological restoration in a spinal cord injury mouse model: involvement of brain-gut axis

“…Accumulating evidence suggests that gut microbial dysbiosis may be involved in SCI pathogenesis and clinical manifestations [22,23,25]. In the present study, we found that FMT not only reshaped microbiota in SCI mice, but also improved neurological functions of SCI mice.…”

“…Anaeroplasmatales and open-field locomotor has been observed in SCI mice, indicating that the proportion of these bacteria might predict the size of functional recovery [22]. Recent investigations demonstrated that induced gut dysbosis exacerbates lesion pathology and impairs functional recovery after SCI; whereas remodeling gut microbes is beneficial to locomotor recovery following injury [25,23].…”

“…GI dysfunction often manifests as diminished colonic transit, constipation, evacuation dyssynergia, and overflow incontinence, which occur frequently in SCI and may aggravate neurological impairment [20]. Most recently, many lines of evidences demonstrate that aberrant gut microbial community is involved in the pathogenesis and clinical phenotypes of SCI [21][22][23][24]. Moreover, a…”

Utilizing a low-carbohydrate/high-protein diet to improve metabolic health in individuals with spinal cord injury (DISH): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…The human gastrointestinal tract is colonized by 100 trillion bacteria, the composition and function of which is susceptible to a plethora of environmental (diet, medication use, physical activity, etc) and host genetic factors. In the case of SCI, the loss of central nervous system control over the gastrointestinal tract, neurological bowel dysfunction and altered colonic transit time are implicated in disruption of the gut microbiota composition (i.e., gut dysbiosis (GD)) [21][22][23][24] . GD developing shortly after SCI is accompanied by inflammation of the intestine [22,23], increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut), and bacterial translocation from the gut into distal organs [23].…”

Utilizing a Low-Carbohydrate/High-Protein Diet to Improve Metabolic Health in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (DISH): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…and host genetic factors. In the case of SCI, the loss of central nervous system control over the gastrointestinal tract, neurological bowel dysfunction and altered colonic transit time, are implicated in disruption of gut microbiota composition (i.e., gut dysbiosis [GD]) (21)(22)(23)(24) . GD developed shortly after SCI is accompanied by inflammation of the intestine (22,23), increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut), and bacterial translocation from the gut into distal organs (23).…”