Damp-heat constitution influences gut microbiota and urine metabolism of Chinese infants

Haihong Zhao; Yuhan Zong; Wenle Li; Yaqi Wang; Weibo Zhao; Xianghe Meng; Fan Yang; Jingwei Kong; Xiaoshan Zhao; Ji Wang

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12424

Damp-heat constitution influences gut microbiota and urine metabolism of Chinese infants

Heliyon. 2022 Dec 24;9(2):e12424. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12424. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Haihong Zhao¹, Yuhan Zong¹, Wenle Li¹, Yaqi Wang², Weibo Zhao¹, Xianghe Meng³, Fan Yang¹, Jingwei Kong⁴, Xiaoshan Zhao^{1

5}, Ji Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution and Preventive Treatment of Disease, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, China.
² College of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, Zhejiang, China.
³ Neurology Department, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100053, China.
⁴ Nutrition and Metabolism Research Division, Innovation Center, Heilongjiang Feihe Dairy Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100015, China.
⁵ School of Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong, China.

Abstract

Background: As an increasingly popular complementary and alternative approach for early detection and treatment of disease, traditional Chinese medicine constitution (TCMC) divides human beings into those with balanced constitution (BC) and unbalanced constitution, where damp-heat constitution (DHC) is one of the most unbalanced constitutions. Many studies have been carried out on the microscopic mechanism of constitution classification; however, most of these studies were conducted in adults and rarely in infants. Many diseases are closely related to intestinal microbiota, and metabolites produced by the interaction between microbiota and the body may impact constitution classification. Herein, we investigated the overall constitution distribution in Chinese infants, and analyzed the profiles of gut microbiota and urine metabolites of DHC to further promote the understanding of infants constitution classification.

Methods: General information was collected and TCMC was evaluated by Constitutional Medicine Questionnaires. 1315 questionnaires were received in a cross-sectional study to investigate the constitution composition in Chinese infants. A total of 56 infants, including 30 DHC and 26 BC, were randomly selected to analyze gut microbiota by 16S rRNA sequencing and urine metabolites by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS method.

Results: BC was the most common constitution in Chinese infants, DHC was the second common constitution. The gut microbiota and urine metabolites in the DHC group showed different composition compared to the BC group. Four differential genera and twenty differential metabolites were identified. In addition, the combined marker composed of four metabolites may have the high potential to discriminate DHC from BC with an AUC of 0.765.

Conclusions: The study revealed the systematic differences in the gut microbiota and urine metabolites between infants with DHC and BC. Moreover, the differential microbiota and metabolites may offer objective evidences for constitution classification.

Keywords: Biomarker; Damp-heat constitution; Gut microbiota; Infant; Metabolism; Traditional Chinese medicine.