Abstract
Atrial fibrillation (AF) reduces the quality of life by triggering stroke and heart failure. The association between AF onset and gut metabolites suggests a causal relationship between AF and gut microbiota dysbiosis; however, the relationship remains poorly understood. We prospectively enrolled 34 hospitalized patients with AF and 66 age-, sex-, and comorbidity-matched control subjects without a history of AF. Gut microbial compositions were evaluated by amplicon sequencing targeting the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. We assessed differences in dietary habits by using a brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ). Gut microbial richness was lower in AF patients, although the diversity of gut microbiota did not differ between the two groups. At the genus level, Enterobacter was depleted, while Parabacteroides, Lachnoclostridium, Streptococcus, and Alistipes were enriched in AF patients compared to control subjects. The BDHQ revealed that the intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and eicosadienoic acid was higher in AF patients. Our results suggested that AF patients had altered gut microbial composition in connection with dietary habits.
Highlights
There is extensive evidence that gut microbiota has important functions in host metabolism and immunity
The relationship of coronary artery disease (CAD) and HF to gut microbiota and its metabolites has been reported in cardiovascular diseases [3,4,5,6,7, 9]
atrial fibrillation (AF) has been associated with gut microbial metabolites [8, 12, 13], the alteration of gut microbial composition in AF is unclear
Summary
There is extensive evidence that gut microbiota has important functions in host metabolism and immunity. We previously reported that amounts of Bacteroides vulgatus and Bacteroides dorei—predominant gram-negative gut microbes—were lower in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to control subjects [5]. Administration of these two Bacteroides species inhibited atherogenesis in apoe−/− mice via decreasing inflammation. The gut microbiota-derived metabolites of dietary choline or carnitine, trimethylamine (TMA), and trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) are related to cardiovascular disease, including atrial fibrillation (AF) [6,7,8]. We investigated gut microbial composition and host plasma metabolites in heart failure and demonstrated the alteration of gut microbial composition and gain of plasma TMAO [9]
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