Nature：老年人肠道菌群组成影响健康状况

7月13日，Nature在线报道，在肠道中的菌群组成与老年人的饮食和健康密切相关。

肠道菌群组成的改变与多种慢性疾病相关，包括肥胖和炎症性疾病。老年人间的肠道菌群较年轻的成年人之间，显示出更大的个体差异。

本研究发现，来自178个老年受试者的粪便菌群组成情况，与这些老年人是居住在社区，日间住院，处于康复中或长期住院护理等状况相关。

然而，按饮食习惯将受试者分类，与按居住地点和肠道微生物组成分类所产生的分组吻合。依据肠道微生物组成对老年受试者的分组与宿主的脆弱性，综合发病率，营养状况，炎症标志物和粪便中水的代谢产物等因素显著相关。接受长期护理的老年人体内的菌群多样性显著低于老年社区居民的菌群。失去这种肠道微生物的多样性增加了老年人的脆弱性。

总的来说，数据支持饮食，微生物和健康状况之间的存在相互关系，表明饮食引发的肠道微生物组成改变在衰老后健康状况的下降中发挥着重要的作用。

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2011.10.017
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Gut microbiota composition correlates with diet and health in the elderly

Marcus J. Claesson,Ian B. Jeffery,Susana Conde,Susan E. Power,Eibhlís M. O’Connor,Siobhán Cusack,Hugh M. B. Harris,Mairead Coakley,Bhuvaneswari Lakshminarayanan,Orla O’Sullivan,Gerald F. Fitzgerald,Jennifer Deane,Michael O’Connor,Norma Harnedy,Kieran O’Connor,Denis O’Mahony,Douwe van Sinderen,Martina Wallace,Lorraine Brennan,Catherine Stanton,Julian R. Marchesi,Anthony P. Fitzgerald,Fergus Shanahan,Colin Hill,R. Paul Ross

Alterations in intestinal microbiota composition are associated with several chronic conditions, including obesity and inflammatory diseases. The microbiota of older people displays greater inter-individual variation than that of younger adults. Here we show that the faecal microbiota composition from 178 elderly subjects formed groups, correlating with residence location in the community, day-hospital, rehabilitation or in long-term residential care. However, clustering of subjects by diet separated them by the same residence location and microbiota groupings. The separation of microbiota composition significantly correlated with measures of frailty, co-morbidity, nutritional status, markers of inflammation and with metabolites in faecal water. The individual microbiota of people in long-stay care was significantly less diverse than that of community dwellers. Loss of community-associated microbiota correlated with increased frailty. Collectively, the data support a relationship between diet, microbiota and health status, and indicate a role for diet-driven microbiota alterations in varying rates of health decline upon ageing.