Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 3 pp 2764—2776
Age-specific differential changes on gut microbiota composition in patients with major depressive disorder
- 1 Institute of Life Sciences, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
- 2 Chongqing Key Laboratory of Cerebral Vascular Disease Research, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
- 3 Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
- 4 Department of Neurology, Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 402160, China
- 5 Department of Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
- 6 Department of Endocrinology and Nephrology, Chongqing University Central Hospital, Chongqing Emergency Medical Center, Chongqing 400014, China
- 7 NHC Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment on Brain Functional Diseases, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
- 8 Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Received: November 21, 2019 Accepted: January 12, 2020 Published: February 10, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102775How to Cite
Abstract
Emerging evidence has shown the age-related changes in gut microbiota, but few studies were conducted to explore the effects of age on the gut microbiota in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). This study was performed to identify the age-specific differential gut microbiota in MDD patients. In total, 70 MDD patients and 71 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and divided into two groups: young group (age 18-29 years) and middle-aged group (age 30-59 years). The 16S rRNA gene sequences were extracted from the collected fecal samples. Finally, we found that the relative abundances of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in young MDD patients as compared with young HCs, and the relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria were significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in middle-aged MDD patients as compared with middle-aged HCs. Meanwhile, six and 25 differentially abundant bacterial taxa responsible for the differences between MDD patients (young and middle-aged, respectively) and their respective HCs were identified. Our results demonstrated that there were age-specific differential changes on gut microbiota composition in patients with MDD. Our findings would provide a novel perspective to uncover the pathogenesis underlying MDD.