Abstract
Human intestinal microbiota are influenced by various factors viz. diet, environment, age, gender, geographical, and socioeconomic situation, etc. among which diet has the most profound impact. However, studies investigating this impact have mostly included subjects from diverse geographic/socioeconomic backgrounds and hence the precise effects of dietary factors on gut microbiota composition remain largely confounded. Herein, with an aim to evaluate the association between dietary habits, specifically yogurt consumption, and the gut microbiota in healthy young adults sharing similar age, lifestyle routine, geographical setting, etc., we conducted a cross-sectional study wherein 293 collegiate freshmen answered a questionnaire about their frequency of yogurt consumption over the last 2 months and provided stool specimens for microbiota analysis. Fecal microbiota were analyzed by highly sensitive reverse-transcription-quantitative-PCR assays targeting bacterial 16S rRNA molecules. Fecal organic acids were measured by HPLC. Overall, the gut microbiota were predominated (97.1 ± 8.6%) by Clostridium coccoides group, Clostridium leptum subgroup, Bacteroides fragilis group, Bifidobacterium and Atopobium cluster. Interestingly, after adjusting the data for yogurt consumption, females were found to have higher total bacterial (P = 0.013) and Bifidobacterium (P = 0.046) count and fecal pH (P = 0.007) and lower fecal concentration of total organic acids (P = 0.030), succinic acid (P = 0.007) and formic acid (P = 0.046) as compared to males. Altogether, yogurt consumption showed positive linear association with Lactobacillus and Lactobacillus gasseri subgroup in both male and female subjects; however, several gender-specific disparities were also detected in this yogurt-microbiota association. Yogurt consumption demonstrated a negative association with L. sakei subgroup, Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus in males but shared a positive association with L. casei subgroup and succinic acid in female subjects. The study manifests the association between yogurt consumption and gut microbiota in a healthy homogeneous cohort and show how this association can differ by host gender. The findings should be helpful for prospective studies investigating the diet–microbiome interaction in human health and disease.
Highlights
Human intestinal microbiota is composed of approximately 1014 bacterial cells, outnumbering our body’s own cells, and influences numerous aspects of our health and physiological condition
With an aim to understand the association of gut microbiota with dietary habits and host gender in healthy young adults, we investigated the fecal microbiota composition of collegiate freshmen nearly 3 months after they had moved into the student dormitory
We have demonstrated that the consumption of a probiotic yogurt drink increases total fecal Lactobacillus count and decreases Enterobacteriaceae and Staphylococcus counts (Tsuji et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2015)
Summary
Human intestinal microbiota is composed of approximately 1014 bacterial cells, outnumbering our body’s own cells, and influences numerous aspects of our health and physiological condition. Majority of the human microbiota studies have employed DNA-based sequencing/metagenomic methods (Mueller et al, 2006; RoblesAlonso and Guarner, 2014) which, while yielding important and comprehensive data on predominant bacterial clades, may not provide adequate information about the subdominant inhabitants (e.g., Lactobacillus subgroups and species) that are generally present in low numbers (e.g.,
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