Changes of the gut microbiota composition and short chain fatty acid in patients with atrial fibrillation

Lingzhi Chen; Jinxin Chen; Yuheng Huang; Yanran Wu; Junfeng Li; Weicheng Ni; Yucheng Lu; Zhenzhen Li; Chuhuan Zhao; Shuting Kong; Hao Zhou; Xiang Qu

doi:10.7717/peerj.16228

Changes of the gut microbiota composition and short chain fatty acid in patients with atrial fibrillation

PeerJ. 2023 Dec 7:11:e16228. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16228. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Wenzhou Central Hospital, Wenzhou, China.
² The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: With the establishment of the cardiac-gut axis concept, increasing evidence has suggested the involvement and important regulatory role of the gut microbiota (GM) and short chain fatty acid (SCFA) in cardiovascular diseases. However, the relationship between GM and atrial fibrillation (AF) is still poorly understood.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were differences in GM and SCFA between AF patients and healthy controls.

Methods: In this study, we enrolled 30 hospitalized patients with AF and 30 matched patients with sinus rhythm (SR). GM species in fecal samples were evaluated through amplicon sequencing targeting the 16Sribosomal RNA gene. The feces SCFAs were describe step by step the quantitative analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). GM species richness, diversity, differential abundance of individual taxa between AF and SR were analyzed.

Results: AF patients showed decreased species richness and α-diversity compared to SR patients, but there was no statistical difference. The phylogenetic diversity was significant decreased in AF group. The β-diversity indexes revealed significant differences in GM community structure between the AF group and the SR group. After investigated the individual taxa, AF group showed altered relative abundance in several taxa compared to the SR group. linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) analysis revealed, a significant decrease in Bifidobacterium and a greater abundance of Lactobacillus, Fusobacterium, Haemophilus in AF group compared with the SR group. The abundance of haemophilus was negative correlated with isovaleric acid and isobutyric acid.

Conclusions: In AF patients, the GM phylogenetic diversity and β-diversity decreased, the relative abundance altered in several taxa and the bacterial community structure changed as well as the SCFA level. GM and SCFA dysbiosis might play a crucial part in the occurrence and development of AF.

Keywords: Atrial fibrillation; Gut microbiota; Short chain fatty acid.

MeSH terms

Atrial Fibrillation*
Fatty Acids, Volatile / analysis
Feces / chemistry
Gastrointestinal Microbiome* / genetics
Humans
Phylogeny

Substances

Fatty Acids, Volatile

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project no. 81873468). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.