Abstract
BackgroundReduced microbial diversity in human intestines has been implicated in various conditions such as diabetes, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease. The role of physical fitness in the context of human intestinal microbiota is currently not known. We used high-throughput sequencing to analyze fecal microbiota of 39 healthy participants with similar age, BMI, and diets but with varying cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Fecal short-chain fatty acids were analyzed using gas chromatography.ResultsWe showed that peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), the gold standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness, can account for more than 20 % of the variation in taxonomic richness, after accounting for all other factors, including diet. While VO2peak did not explain variation in beta diversity, it did play a significant role in explaining variation in the microbiomes’ predicted metagenomic functions, aligning positively with genes related to bacterial chemotaxis, motility, and fatty acid biosynthesis. These predicted functions were supported by measured increases in production of fecal butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid associated with improved gut health, amongst physically fit participants. We also identified increased abundances of key butyrate-producing taxa (Clostridiales, Roseburia, Lachnospiraceae, and Erysipelotrichaceae) amongst these individuals, which likely contributed to the observed increases in butyrate levels.ConclusionsResults from this study show that cardiorespiratory fitness is correlated with increased microbial diversity in healthy humans and that the associated changes are anchored around a set of functional cores rather than specific taxa. The microbial profiles of fit individuals favor the production of butyrate. As increased microbiota diversity and butyrate production is associated with overall host health, our findings warrant the use of exercise prescription as an adjuvant therapy in combating dysbiosis-associated diseases.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40168-016-0189-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Reduced microbial diversity in human intestines has been implicated in various conditions such as diabetes, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease
Our regression model showed that ~20 % of variation in gut bacterial alpha diversity could be explained by peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) alone; VO2peak stood as the only variable that significantly contributed to increased alpha diversity
The primary findings from this study suggest that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a good predictor of gut microbial diversity in healthy humans, outperforming several other variables including sex, age, Fig. 7 redundancy analysis (RDA) correlation triplot of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) abundance data constrained by selected explanatory variables
Summary
Reduced microbial diversity in human intestines has been implicated in various conditions such as diabetes, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease. Considerable research in recent years has focused on understanding and developing strategies to promote overall GI health via community manipulation in attempt to resolve dysbiosis-associated diseases. Various extrinsic variables such as stress, probiotic and antibiotic use, alcohol consumption, and diet have been identified as factors that can instigate changes in the microbiome [1, 9]. Clarke et al found clustering of bacterial communities between professional rugby players and high/low body mass index (BMI) controls [13] They further identified increases in bacterial community richness in these elite athletes compared to both control groups. Extreme dietary differences, especially high protein intakes amongst the athletes, confounded interpretations regarding the specific role of physical activity and microbial changes
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