Substantial Intestinal Microbiota Differences Between Patients With Ulcerative Colitis From Ghana and Denmark.

Hengameh Chloé Mirsepasi-Lauridsen,Timothy Archampong,Karen Angeliki Krogfelt,Andreas Munk Petersen,Henrik Vedel Nielsen,Katleen Vranckx,Lee O’Brien Andersen

doi:10.3389/fcimb.2022.832500

Abstract

BackgroundUlcerative colitis (UC) is a relapsing nontransmural inflammatory disease that is restricted to the colon and is characterized by flare-ups of bloody diarrhea. In this study, we aimed to investigate intestinal bacterial diversity in healthy controls and patients with UC with and without active disease, from Ghana and Denmark.MethodsThe study included 18 UC patients (9 with active and 9 with inactive disease) and 18 healthy controls from Ghana. In addition 16 UC patients from Denmark (8 UC with active and 8 UC with inactive disease) and 19 healthy controls from Denmark. Microbiota diversity analysis relied on sequencing of ribosomal small subunit genes. Purified genomic DNA was submitted to PCR using a primer set targeting prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The purified DNA was sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq system in a 2 × 250 bp set up (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA). Blinded analysis of the taxonomy table was performed using BioNumerics-7.5 (Applied Maths NV, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium).ResultsWhen analyzing the taxonomy data for prokaryotes, cluster and principal component analysis shows Danish healthy controls clustered together, but separate from healthy controls from Ghana, which also clustered together. The Shannon diversity index (SDI) for prokaryotes shows significant differences between Danish healthy controls and patients in comparison with the corresponding groups from Ghana (p = 0.0056). Significant increased abundance of Escherichia coli was detected in healthy controls from Ghana in comparison with healthy controls from Denmark. The SDI of the prokaryotes ranges between 0 and 3.1 in the Ghana study groups, while in the Danish study groups it ranges between 1.4 and 3.2, the difference is however not significant (p = 0.138). Our data show a significant increased abundance of eukaryotes species in the healthy control group from Ghana and Denmark in comparison with patient groups from Ghana and Denmark.ConclusionOverall, healthy controls and patients with UC from Denmark have increased diversity of prokaryotes. Healthy controls from Denmark and Ghana have increased abundance of eukaryotes in comparison with UC patient groups from Denmark and Ghana.

Highlights

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon characterized by bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain (Baumgart and Sandborn, 2007)
Analysis of a-diversity using the Shannon Diversity Index, and two-way-analysis of variance (ANOVA) test on ranks showed significant differences between Danish healthy controls and patients compared with the healthy controls and patients from Ghana, p ≈ 0.0056 (Figure 3)
In the last two decades, the focus has been on reduced diversity of the intestinal microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients from Western countries, and this reduced microbiota diversity is thought to play an important role in disease relapses and remission or even in developing IBD (Frank et al, 2007; Vester-Andersen et al, 2019; Zakerska-Banaszak et al, 2021)

Summary

Introduction

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon characterized by bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain (Baumgart and Sandborn, 2007). In UC patients it is shown an increased prevalence of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria such as Escherichia coli and decreased prevalence of Clostridial cluster IV such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (Frank et al, 2007; Sokol et al, 2008) and Firmicutes such as Lactobacillus (Frank et al, 2007; Strober, 2013; Vester-Andersen et al, 2019; Nascimento et al, 2020). Reduced abundance of Lactobacillus species, lactic acidproducing bacteria is linked to UC, and lactic acid-producing bacteria are known to benefit the gut by creating an intestinal environment, not favorable for pathogenic bacteria (Walter, 2008). We aimed to investigate intestinal bacterial diversity in healthy controls and patients with UC with and without active disease, from Ghana and Denmark

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