Intestinal microbiome changes and mechanisms of maintenance hemodialysis patients with constipationOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Constipation is a common symptom in maintenance hemodialysis patients and greatly affects the quality of survival of hemodialysis patients. Fecal microbiota transplantation and probiotics are feasible treatments for functional constipation, but there is still a gap in the research on the characteristics of gut flora in patients with maintenance hemodialysis combined with constipation. The aim of this study is to clarify the characteristics of the intestinal flora and its changes in maintenance hemodialysis patients with constipation.
Who was studied?
Fecal samples were collected from 45 participants, containing 15 in the maintenance hemodialysis constipation group,15 in the maintenance hemodialysis non-constipation group and 15 in the healthy control group. These samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The feature of the intestinal microbiome of maintenance hemodialysis constipation group and the microbiome differences among the three groups were elucidated by species annotation analysis, α-diversity analysis, β-diversity analysis, species difference analysis, and predictive functional analysis.
What were the most important findings?
The alpha diversity analysis indicated that maintenance hemodialysis constipation group was less diverse and homogeneous than maintenance hemodialysis non-constipation group and healthy control group. At the genus level, the top ten dominant genera in maintenance hemodialysis constipation group patients were Enterococcus, Escherichia-Shigella, Bacteroides, Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium, Ruminococcus_gnavus_group, Lachnospiraceae_unclassified, Faecalibacterium, Akkermansia and UCG-002. Compared with non-constipation group, the Enterococcus, Rhizobiales_unclassified, Filomicrobium, Eggerthella, Allobaculum, Prevotella_7, Gordonibacter, Mitochondria_unclassified, Lachnoanaerobaculum were significantly higher in constipation group (p<0.05). Compared with non-constipation group, the Kineothrix, Rhodopirellula, Weissella were significantly lower in constipation group (p<0.05). The predictive functional analysis revealed that compared with non-constipation group, constipation group was significantly enriched in pathways associated with pyruate metabolism, flavonoid biosynthesis.
What are the greatest implications of this study?
This study describes for the first time the intestinal microbiome characteristics of maintenance hemodialysis patients with constipation. The results of this study suggest that there is a difference in the intestinal flora between maintenance hemodialysis patients with constipation and maintenance hemodialysis patients without constipation.