scholarly journals Blastocystis Colonization Is Associated with Increased Diversity and Altered Gut Bacterial Communities in Healthy Malian Children

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aly Kodio ◽  
Drissa Coulibaly ◽  
Abdoulaye Kassoum Koné ◽  
Salimata Konaté ◽  
Safiatou Doumbo ◽  
...  

Blastocystis is the most common protozoan colonizing the gut of vertebrates. It modulates the human digestive microbiota in the absence of inflammation and gastrointestinal disease. Although it has been associated with human diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, its pathogenicity remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the influence of Blastocystis on the gut bacterial communities in healthy children. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 147 Blastocystis-colonized and 149 Blastocystis-noncolonized Malian children, with Blastocystis colonization assessed by real-time PCR and gut microbial communities characterized via 16S rRNA gene (Illumina MiSeq) sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. The gut microbiota diversity was higher in Blastocystis-colonized compared to Blastocystis-noncolonized children. The phyla Firmicutes, Elusimicrobia, Lentisphaerae, and Euryarchaeota were higher in Blastocystis-colonized children, whereas Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, unassigned bacteria, and Deinococcus–Thermus were higher in Blastocystis-noncolonized children. Moreover, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (family Ruminococcaceae) and Roseburia sp. (family Lachnospiraceae) abundance was higher in Blastocystis-colonized children. We conclude that Blastocystis colonization is significantly associated with a higher diversity of the gut bacterial communities in healthy children, while it is not associated with the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in the human gut.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuto Fukui ◽  
Hitoshi Nakajima ◽  
Kotaro Aoki ◽  
Ohmori Toshihide ◽  
Kazuhiro Tateda ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Gut microbiome dysbiosis has been reported in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, gut microbiome of healthy Japanese individuals differs from that of other populations and gut microbiome of Japanese IBD patients has not been well characterized. We conducted a cross-sectional study to characterize the gut microbiome of Japanese patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods Two-hundred and eighty-four IBD patients (39 CD patients and 245 UC patients) and 31 healthy participants were enrolled. Gut microbiome was analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing using Illumina Miseq. Results Significant differences were observed among the gut microbiome of CD patients, UC patients and healthy individuals. Species richness and evenness were significantly lower in patients with active IBD than in healthy individuals. At the genus level, Bifidobacterium was most abundant genera in all three groups. Pathogenic obligate anaerobes such as Prevotella and Veillonella were increased and commensal bacteria such as Ruminococcus was decreased in IBD patients compared with healthy individuals. Conclusions CD patients and UC patients showed unique patterns of gut microbiome dysbiosis. Patients with active IBD had severe dysbiotic changes. However, characteristic features of the gut microbiome of Japanese individuals, such as high abundance of the genus Bifidobacterium, were maintained in IBD patients.


Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Katerina Sdravou ◽  
Elpida Emmanouilidou-Fotoulaki ◽  
Athanasia Printza ◽  
Elias Andreoulakis ◽  
Athanasios Evangeliou ◽  
...  

Parental feeding practices and mealtime routine significantly influence a child’s eating behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the mealtime environment in healthy children and children with gastrointestinal diseases. We conducted a cross-sectional case–control study among 787 healthy, typically developing children and 141 children with gastrointestinal diseases, aged two to seven years. Parents were asked to provide data on demographics and describe their mealtime environment by answering to 24 closed-ended questions. It was found that the majority of the children had the same number of meals every day and at the same hour. Parents of both groups exerted considerable control on the child’s food intake by deciding both when and what their child eats. Almost one third of the parents also decided how much their child eats. The two groups differed significantly in nine of the 24 questions. The study showed that both groups provided structured and consistent mealtime environments. However, a significant proportion of children did not control how much they eat which might impede their ability to self-regulate eating. The presence of a gastrointestinal disease was found to be associated with reduced child autonomy, hampered hunger cues and frequent use of distractions during meals.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 215824402098331
Author(s):  
Nur Chandra Bunawan ◽  
Dwi Suseno ◽  
Drupadi H. S. Dillon ◽  
Ikhwan Rinaldi ◽  
Dyah Purnamasari

Patients with undernutrition at admission have higher risks to worsen their nutritional status, which is linked to an increase in morbidity and mortality. This study investigated the prevalence of undernutrition at admission and its associated factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients aged 18 to 59 years old in Internal Medicine ward at Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia, between July and September 2019. Factors that might be associated with undernutrition at admission, such as age, sex, marital status, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and type of comorbidity, depression, and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), were assessed. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine the associated factors. Sixty hospitalized patients with median age of 42 years and 76.7% with married status joined the study. The most common reason for hospitalization was acute gastrointestinal disease with gallstones as the most common comorbidity. Undernutrition exists in 26.7% of subjects. High CCI score was observed among 11.7% subjects and half of subjects had NLR category ≥5. Bivariate analysis revealed that unmarried status, age ≥40 years, and malignancy were associated with undernutrition at admission. Logistic regression analysis showed malignancy as an independent predictor of undernutrition during the initial hospital admission (odds ratio [OR] = 11.8; 95% confidence interval [CI]: [1.1, 125.7]). The prevalence of undernutrition at admission was 26.7%. Factors associated with an increased prevalence of undernutrition at admission were age <40 years, unmarried status, and malignancy. Malignancy was an independent factor of the prevalence of undernutrition at admission.


RMD Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e001450
Author(s):  
Clementina López-Medina ◽  
Anna Molto ◽  
Joachim Sieper ◽  
Tuncay Duruöz ◽  
Uta Kiltz ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo characterise peripheral musculoskeletal involvement in patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) including psoriatic arthritis (PsA), across the world.MethodsCross-sectional study with 24 participating countries. Patients with a diagnosis of axial SpA (axSpA), peripheral SpA (pSpA) or PsA according to their rheumatologist were included. The investigators were asked which diagnosis out of a list of six (axSpA, PsA, pSpA, inflammatory bowel disease-associated SpA, reactive arthritis or juvenile SpA (Juv-SpA)) fitted the patient best. Peripheral manifestations (ie, peripheral joint disease, enthesitis, dactylitis and root joint disease), their localisation and treatments were evaluated.ResultsA total of 4465 patients were included (61% men, mean age 44.5 years) from four geographic areas: Latin America (n=538), Europe plus North America (n=1677), Asia (n=975) and the Middle East plus North Africa (n=1275). Of those, 78% had ever suffered from at least one peripheral musculoskeletal manifestation; 57% had peripheral joint disease, 44% had enthesitis and 15% had dactylitis. Latin American had far more often peripheral joint disease (80%) than patients from other areas. Patients with PsA had predominantly upper limb and small joint involvement (52%).Hip and shoulder involvement was found in 34% of patients. The prevalence of enthesitis ranged between 41% in patients with axSpA and 65% in patients with Juv-SpA. Dactylitis was most frequent among patients with PsA (37%).ConclusionThese results suggest that all peripheral features can be found in all subtypes of SpA, and that differences are quantitative rather than qualitative. In a high proportion of patients, axial and peripheral manifestations coincided. These findings reconfirm SpA clinical subtypes are descendants of the same underlying disease, called SpA.


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